Kimi Ga Inai Kono Keshiki Wa
by Sharkalicious
Summary: Tanaka Satsuki is 17, but is still a Genin. Her past is clouded and no one knows much about her, due to her clans secretiveness. That is apart from her best friend, and the person she's trying to forget. Mainly ItaOC and some KakaOC and SasuOC
1. SATCHAN!

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

_I originally posted this on quizilla under the username .NO[SUPERMAN so don't say I stole it, 'cause I didn't and it all belongs to me. :) it doesn't really get exciting, or good until a few parts, and it follows the manga. Yeah. _

_ ENJOY!_

_----- _

_The foe ninja began to crowd in on the cell; the three man cell- with the missing, dead, sensei. It had been a trick. An awful trick. "Sa-chan... What do we do?" The youngest whispered, clutching to her elder cousins arm. "Sa-chan?"_

"SAT-CHAN, OHAYOU!"

I sat up quickly, and stared wide eyed as my young friend, Chiaki, entered my room. Usually, she didn't have a loud mouth on her, a filthy one, not a loud one- that was for sure; but today, she was just excited. It was the day the Genin in the village got put into teams, and I was also going to be placed onto my second team.

Chiaki had a large grin on her face as she bounced to my closet and threw my clothes at me. "Ne, Sat-chan?"

"Uh, hai... Chika-chan?" I asked, standing up from my bed and stretching.

"Do you think we'll get on the same team?" She asked, her eyes glowing with the hope that it would end up like that. "As long as I'm not with that damned Uchiha," she added, spitting his name out.

"Chika-chan," I chuckled, pushing her out of my door. "Go downstairs and calm down."

Chiaki nodded, bounding down the stairs- her long, purple hair flowing behind her. Usually it hid her eyes at the front, but her hitai-ate was tied around her forehead, keeping it back from her eyes. It was probably ideal as well, usually you had to see to be a half decent ninja. Then again, some ninja were able to see without using their eyes.

Chiaki had been my friend for a few years. To be honest, I wasn't even sure how it happened, she was only 12- and I was 17. She usually came bounding around before seven am whenever she didn't have to be at the academy, she had a habit of letting herself in and waking me up every morning with a loud- 'SAT-CHAN, OHAYOU!' I knew perfectly well, however, that she didn't really have any other friends- well, what she classed as friends. My Purple haired friend, preferred to go solo.

"Satu," a quiet voice whispered, making me look up at my younger sister as she entered my room. "Ane-san, we have to be at the academy soon."

"I know, Himeko-chan," I laughed. "I'm just getting changed," I added with a smile. She let a large smile sit on her face, before she walked out and downstairs. Most probably to talk with Chiaki for a while. Himeko was my younger sister, she was only Eight, and was a student at the academy. People always found it was weird she was born, see, my father was killed by the Kyuubi 13 years ago, the village claimed that because my mother was a saint it was a gift from him in the other world.

My mother never told anyone, apart from me the truth. The fact that she had a fling with a man a few years after my father died. She was born shortly after I joined the academy, my mother's boyfriend never stuck around though. My mother got ill and became weak, she couldn't even leave the house, and on some day's she couldn't get up from her bed. It left me the last blood member of the Tanaka clan, and to look after my mother and my sister.

I sighed, putting my black hair up into a knot, before slipping on my usual outfit. I kept my hitai-ate around my neck, but that was mainly because it often fell down anyway. "SAT-CHAN, WE'LL BE LATE!"

"Yare, yare," I mumbled, exiting my room. "Ja ne, Kaa-san!" I didn't wait for a reply, she barely ever replied. She usually slept until lunch time, then I would come back and check on her. I doubt as if I could do it that day though, I would be busy with my new team.

As soon as I entered the kitchen, Chiaki and Himeko smiled, and exited into the streets of Konoha, with me following behind them. It was a rather warm day, so, much to the complaint of my companions, we walked to the academy. "Ne, Sat-chan, we'll be late for orientation."

"No we wont," I sighed, pointing to the large building in front of us. "You seem to forget I only live around the corner, Baka-chan."

Himeko soon left us to find her friends, while Chiaki and I walked towards Iruka's classroom. I felt weird being in the academy again, I hadn't been in there for going on Four years. The students were extremely loud when I entered, and only a few looked up as I entered, one of them being Uchiha Sasuke. "What does Sasu-bastard think he's staring at?" Chiaki mumbled under her breath.

Sasuke was the 'last' Uchiha left. The clan was massacred a few years back, but not many of the young genin really knew anything about it. His hair was more raven, than black but his eyes deffinately were black. He wore a blue shirt with the Uchiha symbol on the back, and white shorts. He was always quiet, but that was more because he was distant of people; who wouldn't be after having their whole family killed?

"Chika-chan, leave him alone," I muttered, taking the seat beside him. I never spoke to him, I didn't even look at him, and he seemed to return the gesture; while Chiaki made a huge fuss about sitting anywhere near him.

"Um, sumimasen," a small voice said, while I looked up at a pink haired girl. "You're aware you're sitting in my seat right?"

"You're seat, Decorin-chan?!" A blonde haired girl hollered. I noticed Chiaki roll her eyes, before banging her head into her arms and groaning.

"That's right, Ino-Pig!"

"Actually, I'm sitting in it, therefore it's my seat," I said, resting my cheek on my hand, and looking at them. "Um...?"

"Haruno Sakura, and Yamanaka Ino," Chiaki mumbled.

"Yamanaka?" I asked, noting the names. The pair seemed curious about me, but they didn't ask anything- therefore I remained silent. Eventually they walked away, and Naruto took the seat next to Chiaki. 'Kyuubi, ka?'

"Anosa, anosa," he spoke up, using a rather loud voice. He seemed rather loud, just from what he was wearing- seeing as it was bright orange. His hair was a bright blonde, and his eyes were the same bright blue as Chiaki's. "Chika-chan, whose the baa-chan?"

Chiaki laughed slightly, answering before I yelled at Naruto for calling me 'old'. "Naruto, this is Tanaka Satsuki. She's a friend of mine, and she isn't old, Naruto."

"Demosa, why is she here? Doesn't she already have a teamttebayo?"

"Naruto, urusai," Chiaki sighed, as Iruka entered the class.

"Okay then, let's get straight to the point then," Iruka said, looking at his clipboard. "You'll be put onto teams of three, with two teams of four," he carried on. "You will be assigned a jounin-sensei and you'll take on missions as the team."

Some of the teams seemed strange really- there was Nara Shikamaru- the lazy genius with Akimichi Chouji, someone who liked food and was always eating, Yamanaka Ino, who was one of Sasuke's 'fangirls' and hated Sakura, and Haruno Sakura, Ino's rival and was probably the biggest 'fangirl' of Sasuke. I found it rather amusing they were on the same team. I doubted they would get along that well.

Another, consisted of Hyuuga Hinata, the silent heir to the Hyuuga clan, with Inuzuka Kiba- very loud and boisterous, along with the rest of the Inuzuka clan he specialised in using ninken- ninja dogs. His was called Akamaru. The last was Aburame Shino, his clan specialised in using bugs- it was rather creepy actually.

"Nanagumi," Iruka said, coming close to the end of the teams. "Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Chiaki, Uchiha Sasuke-," at this, Chiaki groaned and slouched in her seat while I frowned. "And, Tanaka Satsuki."

"YATTA!" Chiaki yelled, throwing her arms around me. "I wont have to deal with Sasu-baka alone!"

I laughed slightly, and pried her off me. "ANOSA, ANOSA!" Naruto yelled, causing me to raise an eyebrow. "Why does a top-class ninja like me, have to be on a team with a bum like Sasuke?!" He yelled, pointing at Sasuke.

"NARUTO!" Iruka yelled. "Sasuke's grades were top in the class, yours were dead last. We have to even out the power in the team!"

The whole class, apart from Sasuke, Chiaki and myself laughed at Naruto. Sasuke seemed to want to comment, and eventually- did. "Don't slow me down, Usuratonkachi."

Chiaki seemed close to erupt, but Iruka silenced everyone and told us that in the afternoon we'd be assigned our sensei's with our team. Naruto and Chiaki ended up going off together to eat lunch, seeing as she knew I would head home to check on my mother; Sasuke walked off on his own in the complete opposite direction. "Sas-chan," I chuckled slightly, before walking towards my home.


	2. Kakashi and Chiaki

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

Second part:)  
------------------

I didn't really have any reason to return home, because when I entered my mother was humming to herself, while making her lunch. I doubt as though she even noticed when I entered, and headed towards my room. My room wasn't really big, it had enough space to move around, and I had quite a few items in it.

I sighed, opening my closet and pulling out a small book. I smiled slightly to myself, and sat on my bed, while opening it- though, a piece of paper falling to the ground caused me to bend down and pick it up. Only it wasn't really paper, it was a picture taken a few years ago. It was me and my best friend- before I met Chiaki. He wasn't even smiling, in fact he looked rather unimpressed. It made me laugh slightly, before I opened the book to a page in which I had a blue ribbon flattened between the pages. I hadn't worn it in years, in fact, the last time I had even opened the book was to put the picture and the ribbon away.

"SAT-CHAN!"

I groaned slightly, hearing Chiaki's feet thunder up the stairs. I quickly put the picture between a few of the pages and shut the book, before putting it under my pillow. Chiaki grinned as she threw open my door. "You should have seen it, Sat-chan!"

"Seen what?" I asked, tying my long hair back with my blue ribbon.

"Er, what's with the ribbon?" Chiaki asked, though before I could answer she carried on with that she was saying before. "Well, Naruto decided to attack Sasu-bastard, and it worked- well to begin with. It was hilarious."

"I'm sure it was," I laughed. "We should get back to the academy though."

Chiaki agreed, and we rushed out of my house and ran down the street towards the academy. People were already filing back in, including Ino and Sakura who looked ready to tear each other's guts out. When we entered the class room, Naruto and Sasuke were glaring at each other, so Chiaki and myself ended up sitting between them.

I noticed Sasuke look at me, slightly shocked, before staring at the front of the classroom with a hardened expression on his face.

"Um, why are we the only ones here?" I asked, after five minutes. "Shouldn't our sensei be here?"

"I know!" Naruto yelled, pulling his head in from the corridor. "Everyone else already met their sensei's, and even Iruka's gone!"

"Naruto, will you sit down?" Chiaki sighed, clearly agitated. "Sat-chan, tell him."

"Naruto-kun," I laughed slightly. "You think a jounin wont fall for the whole, eraser in the door trick?" I asked, watching as he wedged one into the door. "A jounin is an elite ninja, Naruto."

Though I paused as a hand appeared in the doorway. Would a jounin seriously fall for it? Apparientaly so, because he entered the room and the eraser fell on his head. I heard Chiaki groan loudly though at who the jounin was, while I just laughed. "Hm, how do I say this?" He asked, holding the eraser in his hand. "My first impression... I hate you."

"I can't believe it," Chiaki muttered, as we were led to the roof of the academy. "Why him?"

"Don't worry about it, Chika-chan," I whispered. "He's not that bad."

"You don't have to live with him," she hissed, as we all took seats.

Yet again, Chiaki and I ended up wedged in between Sasuke and Naruto to stop them fighting. It was lucky I was sat beside Sasuke because Chiaki probably would have picked a fight with Sasuke as soon as she could. "Okay then, let's get to know each other," Kakashi said rather boredly.

"Uh, how so?" Naruto asked.

"Well... your likes... dislikes, hobbies... dreams for the future- that kind of stuff," he explained. "Satsuki can go first."

Chiaki snickered slightly, while I narrowed my eyes slightly at Kakashi. "But how do I know you're really Kakashi?" I asked, smirking slightly.

Kakashi sighed, while Naruto stared at me weirdly. "Fine... I'm Hatake Kakashi-"

"HATAKE?!" Naruto yelled. "You and Chiaki are related?"

"Hai hai," Kakashi mumbled. "I don't want to tell you about my likes and dislikes. My dreams for the future are none of your business- but anyway, I have a lot of hobbies."

"So.. all we learnt was his name, and that he's related to Chiaki-chan?" Naruto whispered. "Lame."

"Okay then, from the left!" Kakashi said, pointing at Naruto.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I like cup Ramen, but what I like even more is the Ramen from Ichiraku that Iruka-sensei buys me," Naruto grinned. "I hate the three minutes it takes for Ramen to cook, my hobbies are eating Ramen!"

'Does he think about anything else?'

"My dream... I want to be the next Hokage! Then all the people in the village will have to respect me," Naruto finished, grinning even more.

"Okay then..." Kakashi drawled, looking at Chiaki. "Chika-chan."

"I'm Hatake Chiaki," she sighed. "I'm baka-jounin's niece, and the rest of the information is on an needs to know basis," she paused, as Naruto went to say something. "As in, you don't need to know."

Kakashi scratched the back of his head slightly at her reply. I guess he hadn't expected anything more from her. "Satsuki-chan."

"Uh, hai," I smiled. "I'm Tanaka Satsuki! People call me Sat-chan though," I started, looking at Sasuke out of the corner of my eyes. "I like training, and I like various other things. I... I dislike plenty of things," I mumbled. "I don't really have any hobbies, I'm kind of boring like that- and dreams for the future... To be a well-known Kunoichi, like Tsunade-san!"

"Hai hai," Kakashi mumbled, probably not really paying attention. "And the last one."

"Hn. I'm Uchiha Sasuke," he started, staring at the floor. "There are plenty of things I hate... And I don't really like anything. I don't want to use the word dream... but ambition," he paused, while I furrowed my eyes. "The resurrection of my clan... and, to kill a certain man."

I think it took almost every bone in my body not to yell at Sasuke, but then again Sasuke had every right to feel that way- even if I didn't. "Sat-chan, daijoubu?"

"Uh, un," I sighed, looking away from Sasuke, and looking at Kakashi.

"Okay then, tomorrow we'll begin our missions! This one is something the five of us can do together," Kakashi explained.

"NANI?!" Naruto yelled.

"Survival training," Kakashi answered, while I groaned. "Yes, Satsuki-chan, you have to do it too."

"But, what's the point?" I mumbled.

Kakashi didn't answer me, but instead started explaining about the training exercise. "See out of the 28 of you who passed your test, only nine will be accepted as genin- with Satsuki having already passed this test she is guaranteed to pass, but she still has to take it. The ones who don't pass will be sent back to the academy."

I sighed slightly, not really impressed I had to re-take the stupid little bell test thing. "Oh and another thing.. don't eat- you'll puke."

So, we all split up and headed back to our houses. Of course, the other three seemed pretty worried about Kakashi's lame little test, it was kind of amusing. I was worried the first time around, but it turned out to be pretty easy. I guess though, if I wasn't guaranteed a pass, I probably would have been pretty nervous.

The house was silent when I arrived back home. Himeko was probably out with her friends, and my mother was asleep. Himeko most probably wasn't going to be back until late, so I put off making our dinner until she came back. Instead I just went to my room and sat by the window. Maybe this time, I'd actually make it to chuunin and I wouldn't have to deal with the whole cell thing again.


	3. The Passing Grade

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

_------------------  
_I woke up early the following morning, mainly to make breakfast and lunch for my mother and sister; seeing as I knew I wouldn't be back until late. It was about five am when I finished, so I left the food in the fridge and headed back upstairs to gather my things, and change. I knew most likely Chiaki would arrive at the training grounds with Kakashi, so she wouldn't be stopping around- Kakashi was always late as it was anyway.

"Ane-san?" I turned slightly at the sound of my sisters voice. She was still half asleep, and was stood in the doorway to her bedroom. "Are you going now?"

"Uh, hai, Himeko-chan," I answered, adjusting my bag on my shoulder. "I left yours and mother's food in the fridge. I probably wont be back until later, so if you go out with your friends be careful."

"HAI Ane-san!" She smiled, before running back into her room. I let a small smile sit on my face, before walking downstairs. Having a large bow on my head though, probably wasn't best for the 'training' but seeing as I wouldn't really have to do much, it didn't matter. Besides, I found that my hair was easier when it was tied back.

I took a slow walk to the training grounds, it was a rather pleasant morning in Konoha, and the merchants were setting up for the busy day ahead of them. Ichiraku Ramen was already open when I walked past, but of course, Naruto wasn't there having taken Kakashi's words seriously.

Sasuke was the only one there when I arrived. He said nothing to me, and I said nothing to him. We just stood with our backs to each other, until Naruto arrived half asleep. "Anosa, Satsuki-chan," Naruto began, as I looked at him. "How do you look so awake?"

I laughed slightly at his question. "I had to wake up hours ago to make lunch for my sister and mother," I explained. I noticed Sasuke glance at us out of the corner of his eye, before he carried on staring at nothing.

"But... doesn't your mother make it?" Naruto asked, blinking. "Or your father? What about him?"

I bit my lip slightly. "My mother is ill, Naruto-kun. My father died twelve-years ago, with the remaining members of my clan."

Naruto didn't ask how they died, I guess he gathered by the fact it was 12 years ago, that it was connected to the Kyuubi. "Isn't there anyone else, though?"

"Before my clan died, a few of them disappeared- half of them to be exact. There was suspicion that they abandoned the village," I paused. "My cousin and my brother survived though, they died a few years back."

Naruto didn't ask again, I guess he gathered by the fact my voice went quiet that it was a touchy subject. We waited for a few more hours, and Chiaki and Kakashi finally arrived. "Yo!"

"Don't 'yo' us!" Naruto yelled. "YOU'RE LATE!"

"Get used to it, Naruto," I laughed. "Kakashi is always late."

Chiaki didn't really look impressed when she walked over to us, she didn't even greet me with her usually perky greeting. "Well you see, a black cat crossed my path, and...err," Kakashi sighed, and put a clock on one of the tree stumps. He then pulled out two bells, and held them up. "Your goal is to get these bells before lunch, if you don't, you get sent back to the academy, and not only do you not get lunch, but I'll tie you up and eat it in front of you."

Naruto pulled a face at the news, while Chiaki yelled at Kakashi; Sasuke remained silent. "But, there's only two bells, and four of us," Chiaki pointed out, once she had calmed down.

"Satsuki-chan passed the test years back, she still has to have a go, but even if she doesn't get one, it doesn't affect her," he began. "As for the rest of you, one of you will definitely fail, so I suggest you come at me with the intent to kill."

"You couldn't even dodge the eraser!" Naruto yelled. "You'll get killed!"

I laughed slightly at how ignorant he was being, it was kind of amusing really; he was basing Kakashi on his first impression- not on the fact that he was a Jounin. "Usually the one's who bark the loudest, are the weakest," Kakashi replied, angering Naruto in the process.

Naruto charged at Kakashi, a kunai in his hand; while I just rubbed my head with my head. "Baka," I muttered, as Sasuke- and surprisingly, Chiaki stared horrified that Kakashi appeared behind Naruto and had turned his own weapon on him.

"I.. I didn't even see him move," Chiaki muttered. "Guess baka-jiji isn't so useless."

I laughed slightly, and watched as Kakashi let Naruto go. "Well, now it looks like you have the intent to kill me- GO!"

Naruto was the first one to get caught by Kakashi. He ended up hung by the foot, from the very same tree I was hidden in. I laughed slightly, and cut him down, before jumping down myself. "Naruto-kun, be careful," I smiled, before running into the forest. I heard a loud yell from behind me, and sighed. Naruto had gotten himself tied up again.

I walked past a clearing where Chiaki was, laid out on the floor looking almost dead. Of course, Kakashi probably knew her better than almost everyone else, so he knew exactly how to trick her. I ignored her though, and carried on walking, she wasn't really in danger.

To be honest, I felt kind of weird having to go through this again. My old team did the same test with our first sensei- we ended up with a new one after the test because ours had to go out of the village on business.

Eventually I found Kakashi fighting with Sasuke- though he soon beat him, and Sasuke's head was poking out of the ground. Kind of like a daisy. I had to laugh slightly. "Shut up!" Sasuke growled, while Kakashi looked at me.

"Yo, Kakashi-sensei!" I greeted, while Sasuke stared at me.

"Yo?! What kind of a greeting is 'yo'?!"

"Oh shut up, Sasuke," I mumbled. "Both bells still there?" I asked. Kakashi just nodded slightly, while reading his book. "PERVERT!" Kakashi looked up slightly maybe slightly amused, but went back to reading it. "What if I told you, I knew where you could get the next chapter?" I asked, a slight glint in my eye. "You just hand over one of those bells..."

"That wont work, Satsuki-chan," Kakashi chuckled.

"But.. I don't want to fight," I sighed. "Chikusho," I added in a hiss, before throwing a pair of shuriken at him. He moved his head to avoid them, but I still managed to cut off one piece of his hair.

"You're not trying," he chuckled slightly, turning the page. "And I know that you haven't really trained, or done anything like this in a few years, but your basic skills must still be there."

Aparientaly, Kakashi knew what buttons to press to get me angry. He knew very well I trained as much as I could each day, and I would train just as hard, if not twice as hard as I used to when I first became a genin. "Urusai, baka!" I growled, bringing my knee up to his gut. To be honest, I hated people seeing me when I was training, or sparing. But Sasuke's head watching us didn't really bother me much.

Kakashi jumped backwards, and slipped his book away into his kunai pouch knowing he'd need his full attention turned to me. Usually I would have used a taijutsu style over using ninjutsu, but I was pretty fired up. I did the hand seals, and jumped back slightly to give it some distance- I didn't really want to hurt Kakashi, just to prove my point. "Ninpou: Katon: Housenka no jutsu!"

Although I knew right away Kakashi had avoided it, so I cancelled the jutsu, and flipped back on my hands just in time to avoid his attack. "You can do better than that," Kakashi mumbled in a bored tone.

I was about to make the next move, but Kakashi's alarm went off. I dropped my stance, and watched as Kakashi headed back to where Naruto was. I helped Sasuke out of the ground before I headed back though. "Sat-chan!" Chiaki yelled, as Sasuke and I walked back to the area with the posts. I laughed slightly at Naruto though, he was tied to one of the posts.

"All of you FAIL!" Kakashi yelled, trying to be angry. I guess he was, seeing as the other three didn't really grasp the concept of a team. "None of you got the point of this exercise! Why do you think you were placed on three man cells?"

When no one answered, Kakashi carried on. "To work together! Sasuke, you thought everyone else would get in your way. Naruto, you acted alone and charged in straight away. Chiaki, you threw all regard for your friends and team away, and took me on yourself," he sighed. "Even you, Satsuki, you fought me even though Sasuke was right there. You were too caught up in being angry at me to help him."

"It's not like he would have helped me anyway," I muttered, folding my arms.

"You'll all get a second chance after lunch," Kakashi said, ignoring me. "Just don't feed anything to Naruto! If you do, you fail!" With that, Kakashi disappeared, leaving the four of us alone.

Naruto was complaining about being tied up, though he kept insisting he wasn't hungry. "Here," Sasuke sighed, holding up his lunch.

"Sasu-baka!" Chiaki hissed. "Didn't you hear what Kakashi-sensei said?!"

"Relax, I don't sense him anywhere," Sasuke replied. "Besides, we get another shot after lunch, if he doesn't eat he'll just get in the way."

I laughed slightly, and picked up a rice ball. "Here, Naruto-kun, I don't each much anyway."

I heard Chiaki jump slightly as the wind picked up, and Kakashi reappeared in front of us, looking rather angry. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!"

"You told us to work as a team," Sasuke frowned.

"HAI HAI!" Naruto answered. Chiaki blinked, and nodded in agreement.

"You all... pass ," Kakashi smiled, while Chiaki blinked at him. "In the ninja world, those who disregard the rules are trash.. but those who don't look after their team-mate's.. they're lower than trash. Congratulations team seven, you pass! Tomorrow, we'll start our real ninja duties," Kakashi smiled, as he led the way off of the training field. Though behind us, Naruto yelled about being left tied up still.

I went home straight away, ignoring Narutos offer- once we had freed him, to go out with the others and get Ramen. He didn't really want to drop it, but Chiaki hit him over the head and eventually he did. My mother was still asleep when I got back, and Himeko was curled up asleep on her bed. I sighed slightly, before walking to my own room and sitting on my bed. It had turned rather cold, or at least our house had.

Eventually my eyes grew heavy, and I ended up falling into a deep sleep, with a smile on my face from my dreams...


	4. Not Fit

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

------------------  
I frowned slightly as the female client squeezed the life out of her cat, Tora. Yes, our mission had been to recover the escaped cat. _Lame_if I do say so myself, ever since we passed Kakashi little 'test' all we ever got was lame-assed missions. Groceries, baby sitting and rescuing animals. Sure, all Genin had to start out doing that, but I was a Genin years ago, I think I had forgotten how lame it really was.

"No wonder the damn cat ran away," I mumbled, folding my arms. No one really heard me, in fact I was standing quite a way from them all. They obviously sensed I was rather annoyed with the missions; they were too, but it didn't seem as they had any guts to say anything.

Why didn't I?

Because I didn't want to risk being thrown off the team, then I would never progress anywhere pass Genin, and I'd be in the same position the following year. "Now, the next assignment for Kakashi's team," Hokage-sama spoke up, as everyone turned to look at him. "Hmm... Baby sit for the Council of Elders... To run errands in the neighbouring village... To dig up Sweet Potatoes-"

"NO WAY!" Naruto yelled, crossing his arms over. _About time Baka-chan cracked. _"No thank you! Those are all stupid, boring missions! Give us something different to do, something important! Something amazing!!!"

_We wont get anything __**that **__brilliant, he's getting his hopes up way too much. _"Don't be a fool!!" Iruka yelled, standing up and slamming his hands on the desk, hard. "You're only a beginner!! Everyone starts out doing grunt work! It's where you get experience so you can work your way up to bigger things!!"

"We've done tons of small stuff!!" Naruto yelled back. "Can't we get some action?!!"

"Naruto, that's enough, knock it off," Kakashi sighed, hitting Naruto on the head. I fully agreed with Naruto though, I just didn't want to say it, besides, it wasn't really like me to lose my temper over anything.

"Apparently Naruto needs an explanation of just what these duties are," Hokage-sama interrupted, a sigh flowing though his husky words. "You see, every day our village receives many requests for something from babysitters, to assassination... We take that tremendous variety and sort them into categories from A to D, based on the degree of skill they require," he paused, and took a drag on his pipe. "We have also divided the Shinobi into classes based on the level of their skills. After we of the upper echelon have sorted all the requests, we distribute them those of the level of ability deemed most appropriate," he paused again from his long winded-explanation. "And," he picked up. "If the ninja in question completes those duties successfully, then the greatful person he has helped pays him a fee. Thus far three of the four of you have only just attained the lowest rank, level D tasks are the best you could aspire to."

I almost yelled at Naruto when I turned to him; it seemed he hadn't paid any attention to the most _annoying _speech I had heard in ages. In fact the blonde haired Genin was sat with his back to Hokage-sama, mumbling to himself about _food_. "Hmm... I had pork ramen for lunch yesterday... So I think I'll have miso ramen today."

"Are you listening?!!" Iruka yelled, fuming at Naruto. I got the feeling he often did that.

"I... I'm sorry," Kakashi said nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

"I don't want to hear it!" Naruto yelled, turning around. "All the old fart ever does is apologise and then give me a lecture! But it's not fair, there's more to me than the trouble-making screw up the old man thinks I am!!"

Kakashi sighed at Naruto, his arms slouched by his side, while Iruka and Hokage-sama just smiled slightly. "Very well."

"Eh?"

"Since you put it that way," Hokage-sama began. "I will permit you to attempt a C rank task- usually reserved for Shinbobi of the Chuunin rank; the protection of a certain individual."

"ALL RIGHT!" Naruto yelled, while Chiaki, Sasuke and I just stared in disbelief at what had just happened. "Who is it? Some great lord? The Daimyo?! A princess?!"

"Compose yourself," Hokage-sama chuckled. "I'll perform the introductions right away. Please invite him in..."

Slowly, the door at the side of the large room opened. It was tense at first, it would be my first decent mission in years, so I was nervous about who it was- although, when a chubby, smallish man walked in, holding a bottle of what looked and smelt like beer in his hand, I felt my heart drop into my stomach. The man had short spiky, Grey hair, and he looked rather drunk. He wore a sleeveless shirt, and checked trousers, and he had his pack on his back- along with rope tied around his head. That was very odd. "What's going on here?" He asked, leaning against the side of the door. "They look like a bunch of wet-nosed brats. Especially the midget. He's got the face of an imbecile. It's a joke, right? You kids aren't really ninja, are you?"

Naruto, however, seemed to find the man's statement very funny, and ended up roaring with laughter. "Haha! Who'd you mean? Which midget? Which imbeci-...?" He paused, as he noticed that in fact, he was the shortest. Chiaki was only slightly taller, and Sasuke was at least a head above her. Sasuke only came to the top of my shoulder, making me the tallest- mainly due to my age. "I'll kill him!" Naruto roared.

"Wrong. No killing the old man you've been assigned to protect," Kakashi said, holding the back of Naruto's shirt to keep him from going anywhere.

"I am Tazuna," the man introduced. "A bridge builder of ultimate renown. Until I am safely back in my own country, where I'll be completing my next bridge, you'll all be expected to protect me... Even if it costs you your lives!"

It then struck me I wouldn't be around for maybe a few weeks, so I turned to Hokage-sama and Iruka. "Don't worry," Hokage-sama chuckled, as if reading my mind. "I'm sure Iruka won't mind looking after Himeko while you're gone."

"Hontou ni, Iruka-san?" I asked, looking at him with a slight smile on my face.

Iruka nodded in reply. "I guess it would be okay if she stayed for a while- what about your mother, will she be okay?"

I mumbled my reply back. "Mother will be just fine."

Obviously, since we would be out of the village for a while we needed to take clothes and stuff with us, so we all went off to our houses- and we were to meet at the entrance to Konoha. My sister wasn't home when I arrived, so I wrote her a note and told her to pack her stuff and go over to Iruka's apartment. My mother was asleep, so I wrote her a note telling her I wouldn't be around. I guess it didn't really matter, she never noticed me, or Himeko anyway.

I was the last, apart from Naruto to arrived at the gate. Chiaki stared at me for a while, before walking over. "Sat-chan?"

"Uh, hai, Chiaki-chan?" I asked, blinking.

"I never asked before- but, what happened to your last team?" She asked.

_Should have guessed this question would come up soon. _"I don't talk about it, to **anyone**," I answered, rather coldly. I saw Chiaki's eyes frown slightly at my cold answer, before she just walked back to Kakashi. I furrowed my eyes, and crossed my arms as Naruto stood in front of us, and held his arms in the air.

"All right!" He yelled. "Road trip!!"

"What are you babbling about?" Chiaki hissed.

"This'll be the first time in my life I've ever been outside of the village!" Naruto yelled, looking around.

"Am I really expected to place my life in the hands of this fool?" Tazuna growled, pointing at Naruto, who pulled a sour face and became quiet.

"There's no call for concern," Kakashi sighed, though he had a rather large grin on his face. How I could tell through his mask wasn't hard, the fact that his eyes were shut and there was something rather cheerful about his voice was the only key I needed. "I am a Jounin, and I'll be along too."

After a few seconds of silence, Naruto turned around and pointed a finger at Tazuna. "Listen you old geezer! You don't mess with ninja. Ever! Especially not a good one like me!" He yelled. "I am the cream of the elite. In fact, one day I'm gonna be the next Lord Hokage! So remember my name, It's Uzumaki Naruto!"

I sighed at Narutos outbursts and folded my arms again. To be honest, I didn't really have such a good feeling about this mission; whever it was because it was my first proper misison in a while, or something else I couldn't tell, but what it was... I didn't like it. "Sat-chan?" Kakashi asked quietly, while I looked at him. "Daijoubu?"

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei," I replied, avoiding eye contact. "Just nervous is all... I guess."

Kakashi nodded, then sighed as Tazuna replied to Naruto. "Hokage, eh? The Lord of your village? The best there is?" Tazuna laughed. "I don't think someone like you has it in him!" He finished, taking a swig of his drink.

"Well you're old and stupid!" Naruto yelled again, spit flying everywhere. "I am doing all the right things, and I'm doing them fast. And when I become Hokage, you're gonna wish you were a lot more respectful to me right now!!!"

Tazuna stopped drinking his beer, or whatever it was and stared at Naruto. "Respect you? I don't think so," he scoffed. "Not even if you did become Hokage."

"You are dead!!!" Naruto yelled.

Yet again, Kakashi grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt. "I said no, you little dunce," he sighed.

We walked for a while, and Naruto was actually getting more excited by the minute. It was amusing really, he was strutting ahead of us, while I just lagged slightly behind listening to the idle chit-chat. The feeling I had gotten earlier was getting worse by the second, I kind of wished I was back home.

"Um, Mr. Tazuna?" Chiaki asked, using a tone which was strange for her.

"Now what?" Tazuna grunted.

"She was just asking a question," I muttered, glaring at the floor.

"Shut it you! Aren't you a bit old to be a ninja anyway?!"

"Aren't you a bit old to be a bridge builder, anyway?" I asked back, glaring at him, before glaring at the floor again.

Tazuna grunted, while Chiaki carried on with her question. I'd really only just noticed, but she had tied her hair up out of the way. Mine was just tied slightly with my bow, but it was still sort of lose.

"You come from the land of the waves, right?" She asked.

"What of it?" Tazuna asked, looking at her from the corner of his eyes.

"Kakashi-jiji," Chiaki started, looking at him. "Are there ninja in that country too?"

"No, not in the land of the waves," Kakashi answered boredly. "But, as a general rule, even with all the differences that exist in local customs and culture, most other lands have their own hidden village where a ninja clan resides."

I inwardly groaned sensing a long-winded speech coming on. "For most of the countries on this continent, the ninja villages serve as the military force. They protect their own people and handle the ongoing relations within neighbouring countries. Yet, the villages do not answer to the rulers of their native countries, instead, they are on an equal footing with the government. In the case of very small islands nations where an invasion would be difficult to mount, a ninja village is regarded as unnecessary. Among the various ninja villages, in particular, those located in the lands of Konoha, Kiri, Kumo, Suna and Iwa are large- and their strength is immense. Those are called the five great lands of Shinobi. They are also the only places where the Shinobi leader calls himself a Kage.

"Those legendary leaders, Hokage and Mizukage for example. Plus Raikage, and Tsuhikage are known to ninja everywhere as the five Kage. The ultimate commanders of the tens of thousands of Shinobi throughout the world."

"Wow, he sounds so amazing," Chiaki muttered, sarcasm dripping through her voice.

"No need to be sarcastic," Kakashi answered. "There's nothing to worry about anyway, you won't face any duels with ninja from other clans while you're handling C level duties."

"So we don't have to worry about other ninja?" Chiaki asked, while I frowned. We were told the exact same thing, my old team and I on our last misison together. There wouldn't be any ninja at all, it was supposed to be a basic task, escort a resident of Konoha back from another village. Simple.

"Of course not!" Tazuna answered quickly, _a little too quickly_.

We walked a few more steps, before I felt a large amount of Chakra from in front of me. Lifting my head, I noticed Kakashi tied up by some chains, while two Kiri-nin's tightened them around him, before pulling him to shreds. The pair of them chuckled, before heading around to Naruto, and appearing behind him. _I should have done something_! Anything. But all I could do was watch as they got ready to attack Naruto. My whole body had gone stiff, and I had no control over anything. All I could do as clench my eyes, mainly so I didn't see my hands shaking at what was going on. _I'm not fit to be on a team... let alone be a ninja..._


	5. My Past The Demon Of The Mist

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)  
_------------------  
I had never expected myself to freeze up as I had; after all I had been a ninja longer than the other three in the team, I felt I had more responsibility. But upon seeing the kiri-nin appear from nowhere my body decided to give up listening to me. It didn't want to move. The only thing I could do was to close my eyes as tightly as possible, but still, even that didn't work to get my body moving.

I put it down to the fact that I hadn't been on a mission, or encountered foe-nin in a while, so now I was just 'out of practice'. I still should have been able to do something.

A slight increase of Chakra caused me to open my eyes, only to see Sasuke fighting both of them. Naruto was holding his hand, due to a large cut in it, and Chiaki was stood in front of Tazuna. I then realised, mainly by the fact there was no trace of blood on the floor, that Kakashi had used Kawarimi to replace himself. _At least he was safe_.

Naruto, like me, watched in awe as Sasuke pinned the two nin to a tree so they couldn't move. I mumbled slightly, watching still as he stood on their arms, smirking, though his smirk faltered as the pair both free themselves.

One of them headed towards Chiaki and Tazuna, while the other one headed towards me. I tried everything I could think of to get my body to move, or at least to form some basic hand seal's and use a jutsu, but my body was frozen.

I guess it was rather lucky that Kakashi appeared at that point, and grabbed both of the ninja around the necks, rendering one of them unconscious. "Yo," he greeted, while I just stared at him like he was unbelievable.

_Damn show off... But still, he did save me from injuries_. "I'm sorry, Naruto, I should have helped you sooner," Kakashi sighed, looking at him. "Satsuki-chan, daijoubu?"

"U-un..." I mumbled, looking back down at the floor.

Kakashi didn't say anything else to me, I guess he already gathered that I had frozen up because I wasn't used to foe-nin. Saying that, neither was Sasuke, and he was just fine."Well done, Sasuke. You too, Chika-chan."

Naruto grumbled slightly, looking at Sasuke- I knew exactly what was running through his mind. Sasuke seemed to realise Naruto's gaze was upon him, and he turned to him with a smirk. "Are you okay, you big chicken?"

I almost yelled at Sasuke to stop picking on Naruto, but then again, he would have probably said the same thing to me. "Naruto!" Kakashi yelled, stopping Naruto picking a fight with Sasuke. "There's no time now for fighting. Their claws are poisoned, we have to clean up that wound right away. If we cut it open more deeply the blood flow will wash out the poison, for now keep it as still as possible so the poison doesn't spread."

Sighing, I walked over to Naruto and stood behind him, looking down at his cut hand. "Daijoubu, Naruto-chan?"

"Uh... Hai, Ane-san..." He mumbled.

"Ne, don't worry," I reassured, smiling at him. "I froze up too, I know how you feel... I've been on plenty of missions like this, yet Sasuke hasn't and... Well you know."

Naruto remained silent, but kept staring at his hand. He nodded his head slightly in reply, I really didn't know why Kakashi was worrying, the Kyuubi's power would probably heal the poison, and the cut, but still it wasn't a guarantee I guess. 

"Tazuna-san," Kakashi said, looking at him, while holding the two ninjas under his arms.

"Na-nani?"

"I need to speak with you," he replied, setting the ninjas down by a tree, before tying them up, and making sure they couldn't escape. I doubt as though they would have tried with Kakashi around anyway. "Our attackers seem to be Chuunin of Kirigakure. They are Shinobi renowned for their willingness to fight on until their goal is achieved, even at the cost of their own lives."

By now, both of the kiri-nin had woken up, and one of them was glaring straight at Kakashi. "How did you know?"

"The sun is out, and it hasn't rained in several days," he began, while I thought. Of course! There had been a strange puddle, and like he had pointed out, it hadn't rained. "So there shouldn't have been any trace of water on the ground."

"If you knew that then why did you even let those creeps attack you?" Tazuna asked, sounding grumpy.

"To see who they were attacking," I answered for Kakashi. "You or us really... Kakashi-sensei probably could have killed them at any time... A good Shinobi knows to get the information before they kill the attacker, or target first."

"Satsuki-chan is right," Kakashi answered. "I needed to see who they were after. There has been no word of Shinobi after your life. The request that was relayed to Hokage-sama, was that you have an escort to protect you against any roving bands of thieves or brigands." Tazuna remained silent, letting Kakashi carry on. "In any case, this is more than a B rank mission. To protect you from ordinary dangers until you complete the bridge, would be a simple thing."

Tazuna still remained silent, but instead of keeping his gaze on Kakashi, he ended up staring at the ground, meaning that he knew Ninja would be after him. "But if you expected to be the target of a ninja assault," Kakashi started up again. "Then it is beyond question that it would have been classed, and priced at, as a mission for Jounin. You have have had your reasons, but it's never a good idea to conceal the facts when asking for help. As it is, the task falls far beyond the boundaries of the job we were assigned."

Chiaki scrunched her nose up while thinking, before sighing. "We should go back, Baka-chan needs an anaesthetic for his hand."

"Hmm..." Kakashi sighed, thinking about what to do. "This is complicated, do we go back now so we can make sure Naruto receives medical attention...?"

Naruto however, didn't really look impressed that we might have to turn back due to his wound. I knew how he felt, I had been in his position on one of my first missions. I'd gotten injured on the way to a village near Sunagakure. My brother, and cousin who were on the same team as me, both suggested to our sensei we turn back; I ended up refusing any kind of help, though I did faint from blood loss.

Naruto growled, before pulling out a kunai and stabbing it through the wound on his hand, causing blood to splash everywhere, including on my cheek seeing as I was stood behind him. "WHAT THE...?!" Chiaki yelled, looking horrified. "Will you stop that!"

Naruto however didn't listen, and I stared at him rather concerned. "I swear by this kunai knife, that I will protect the old man. I'm okay to carry on, Kakashi-sensei!"

"Naruto, we needed a free flow of blood to clean the poison from your wound, but you've exceeded the need," Kakashi sighed, bending down in front of him. "You could bleed to death, I'm serious ."

_Kakashi is too light hearted_, he even had a smile on his face as he said that. Sighing, I pulled some bandages out of my kunai pouch and gave them to Kakashi so he could clean up Naruto's wound. I slumped my way over to Tazuna, Sasuke and Chiaki and wiped the blood of my cheek. "NOO!" Naruto yelled, turning pale. "No way! Isn't gonna happen! I ain't gonna die like this!"

"Naruto, show me your hand," Kakashi sighed, taking Naruto's hand while Chiaki yelled at Naruto.

"What the hell were you playing at?!"

No one replied to her, but Naruto started to shake while Kakashi stared at Naruto's wound, with a rather serious face. "Ka... Kakashi... Sen...sei," Naruto said, shaking. "Am... I... G-going to be.. okay?"

"Huh?" Kakashi asked, looking up. "Oh.. yeah," he finished, wrapping up Naruto's hand with the bandage.

"Sensei.. uh," Tazuna sighed, standing forward. Kakashi looked at him, before standing up. "I have something... I need to say..."

* * *

We had to take a boat for the next part of the journey. Mainly so we weren't detected, and because there was no other way across. "Wow, this is some fog," Chiaki muttered. "I can barely see anything."

The man who was rowing the boat stopped for a second, and turned to face her. "We'll be able to see the bridge in a minute... And on the other side of it is Nami no Kuni."

We all waited for a while, waiting to see how big the bridge really was- Naruto was the first to react to seeing it. "SUKE!" He yelled. "It's huge!"

"Hey, shut up!" The 'driver' hissed. "This mist'll keep us hidden, but we have to turn the engines off... We'd be in big trouble if Gatou caught us..."

Tazuna had earlier explained who 'Gatou' was. He was a large, well-known business man, but he wasn't as legitimate as people thought. He had kind of 'taken over' nami no kuni, he controlled everything there, from the wealth, to the transportation. Gatou used the water ways to ship drugs, and over substances like that, so of course the bridge would get in his way. He had hired all sorts people to stop Tazuna from completing the bridge, and so far it hadn't worked. Tazuna then tricked Kakashi into finishing the mission, mainly by saying his daughter would be alone and would hate Konoha Shinobi, and that his grandson would cry.

So that's where we were now. "We'll be there soon. Tazuna," the driver said, looking at him. "So far it looks like we've been over looked. Just to be sure we'll take an inland waterway through town to a point where we can make landfall under the cover of Mangroves."

"Arigatou," Tazuna replied.

Naruto seemed the most excited as we stopped, ready to finish the rest of our journey. Maybe it was because he wanted the chance to show Sasuke up. "Okay!" Tazuna yelled, was we began walking. "Take me the rest of the way!"

"Yare, yare," Kakashi sighed, staring straight ahead.

I, on the other hand, was completely worried about what would happen next. The previous ninja were only Chuunin; the next would be a Jounin, there was no doubt about it. "Satsuki-chan, are you sure you're okay?"

"Huh?" I asked, looking up at Kakashi. "Yeah... I'm just fine... Do you think.. they'll send a Jounin next though?"

"Most probably," he sighed, not really welcoming that fact. 

Everything was silent for a while, Sasuke and Naruto were trying to out walk each other- though, Naruto soon got tired of that and threw a Shuriken at nothing, causing everyone to jump in surprise. "NARUTO!" Chiaki roared, hitting him over the head. "Don't be stupid!"

"Eh... Naruto... Shuriken can be dangerous, so... would you please not throw them?" Kakashi asked, waving his hands up and down.

"Hey, Midget! Stop scaring us!" Tazuna yelled.

Naruto though, didn't listen much and threw another Shuriken in the direction of... this time, movement. "NARUTO!"

"There was something there!" He defended, as Kakashi looked at what had been hit. "AH! USAGI!" Naruto cried, hugging the rabbit he'd scared close to him.

I furrowed my eyes thinking, the rabbit was white- and that was strange. Snow rabbit's were only white in winter, in Spring they were brown. It was then that a chakra, very familiar to me filled the air. "DUCK!" Kakashi yelled, as a large head-cleaving sword flew through the air, and wedged it's self into a tree.

As we all stood up, I turned my attention to the figure standing on the head-cleaver. I felt my insides almost explode from the anger that had just built up. This time, I knew my body wouldn't be frozen up, after all I had waited for this moment for years.

"Well, well, if it isn't Momochi Zabuza, the kid who ran off and left Kirigakure," Kakashi sighed, as Naruto ran forward to yell at Zabuza. I on the other hand just glared at hi, my fists shaking beside me.

Zabuza turned his head slightly, and stared straight at me. Since I was standing behind everyone, no one seemed to realise how angry I was- at least, Kakashi did when he turned around. "Akasuki-chan," Zabuza smirked.

"URUSAI NE!" I roared, following Naruto's example, and running forward. Kakashi however, grabbed me under my arms so I couldn't go any further, it was safe to say no one expected me to act like this over anything, especially someone know one knew I knew. And what had made it worse, was the fact he called me by my middle name, something that I hated. "KISAMA!"

"Satsuki-chan," Kakashi pleaded, trying to get me to calm down. "Calm down, none of you can fight him- he's too strong."

"I don't care!" I growled, glaring at Zabuza more than ever, he seemed to find this amusing and chuckled. "USURAI!"

"You have a filthy mouth," he chuckled. "More than what you did."

"DAMARE, KISAMA!"

"Uh... Satsuki-chan, I wont let you go until you calm down and promise me you wont try to... er, hurt him," Kakashi sighed. "How do you know him anyway?"

I noticed Zabuza's smirk grow larger, as I calmed down and Kakashi released me. I could feel everyone's eyes turned to me as I stared at the floor, my bangs over my eyes. "My, Akasuki-chan, you didn't tell anyone about that incident four years ago?"

I balled my fists up again, trying to keep my anger in check, and I think Kakashi seemed to realise how we knew each other. The truth was, I had never told anyone exactly what had happened, no person, apart from one, knew who had killed the rest of my team and my sensei, at least not until now.

"Give me some space," Kakashi sighed, putting his bag down, and lifting his hitai-ate, to reveal his Sharingan eye. I winced slightly, and stood back. "This could be rough." I think I was close to flying at Zabuza myself, I had trained for years for when I found him- so I could kill him slowly and painfully, just like he had done to my team those years back, and now that he turned up, I wouldn't even get a chance to try and kill him.


	6. The Child Who Killed

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

------

I remained glaring at Zabuza in my position, my fists clenched beside me, until Kakashi pushed me backwards. I was so angry I couldn't even say anything, of course, Zabuza just laughed. _Damn how he irritated me when he did that_. "Urusai," I hissed under my breath, looking him in the eyes. "Kakashi-sensei," I said quickly, looking at him. "Let me-"

"Iie, Satsuki-chan... You may have a score to settle with him, but he's a jounin level," Kakashi sighed, looking at me over his shoulder. "Gomen... But while you're on my team, you're my responsibili-"

"I'm not a gaki!" I growled, glaring at him. "I.. uh.. gomen..." I mumbled, looking down.

Kakashi didn't reply to me, and I knew he didn't blame me for getting angry, after all... I wanted revenge. I scrunched my nose up as I stared at the ground, Kakashi didn't really have faith in my abilities as a Shinobi, then again, I had frozen up earlier. "Ane-san!" Naruto yelled, grabbing my arm. "Dai-daijoubu?"

I didn't reply to him, but I did let him pull me back a bit from Kakashi, while I held gaze with Zabuza again. At least until he turned his attention to Kakashi. "Sharingan no Kakashi, ka?"

Chiaki and Naruto both had an extremely confused look on their faces as Zabuza said this, and to be honest, I was surprised Chiaki knew nothing about the Sharingan. Sasuke, on the other hand, just looked at Kakashi with a frown- that was to be expected. The Sharingan was a unique trait of the Uchiha clan, and Kakashi wasn't an Uchiha.

"Assume the manji battle formation," Kakashi started, lifting up his hitai-ate. "Protect Tazuna-san, and stay out of the fight- Satsuki-chan, you too. This situation commands teamwork." I clenched my fist again, before releasing it and sighing. "And now, Zabuza, shall we?" Kakashi finished, as he finished lifting his hitai-ate. It was strange to see a Sharingan, after not having seen one for some years.

"This is an honour," Zabuza chuckled, finally turning around fully. "To see the Sharingan so early in our meeting."

Naruto, eventually couldn't take not knowing anything and before long yelled at everyone. "You keep saying, Sharingan, Sharingan- What the heck is a Sharinganttebayo?!"

"Shinobi who have the Sharingan eye," Sasuke started, causing Naruto to look at him. "Have mastered a form of Doujutsu it enables them to see through any jutsu, and reflect the power back at the user," he paused. "And there's more..."

Zabuza decided to carry on Sasuke's explanation, beginning it with a light chuckle. "Right, that's not what makes it so fearful. Shinobi who posses the Sharingan, can not only see through nin, tai and genjutsu... They can also copy an opponents techniques and use them their selves," Zabuza paused. "When I was an assassin for Kirigakure no sato, I possesed the usual kind of bingo book- and in it was the man who copied over a thousand different techniques; Sharingan no Kakashi."

"Kakashi-jiji isn't that brilliant," Chiaki mumbled, kicking the dirt with her shoes.

"Enough," Zabuza grunted, kneeling down on his head-cleaver, while holding it's handle. "Lets finish the chit-chat, I'm on a tight schedule to finish off the old man." Tazuna's eyes widened slightly, before the four of us Genin's surrounded him. The other three had armed themselves with Kunai's, while I just kept up a defensive stance, ready for him. "But... Kakashi, looks like I'm going to have to kill you first."

With that, Zabuza jumped from the tree, taking his head-cleaver with him, before landing on the water. "Is he... walking on water?!" Chiaki asked, shocked.

"Don't be so surprised, Chiaki-chan," I sighed. "Kirigakure mainly use water jutsu's... And besides, water walking is something most Jounin can do." I narrowed my eyes at Zabuza slightly as he released his Chakra into a jutsu. "Kisama," I muttered under my breath. Seemed he had grown a lot stronger than what he was, but he wasn't the only one either.

"Kirigakure... No jutsu," he said, as a thick mist appeared, hiding him from out eyes.

"Letting your guard down around him buys you a direct ticket to heaven," Kakashi frowned. "I haven't mastered the Sharingan, so keep on your toes."

Everything was silent for a moment, and I could tell the others were nervous. I on the other hand, was waiting for a chance top kick Zabuza where it hurt, there was no way Kakashi would be able to beat him, that was bluntly obvious to me, it would only take some time before I could have a go- even if it cost me my life. Zabuza's voice then echoed through the air. "There are eight points... Throat, spinal column, lungs, liver, the jugular vein, the subclavian artery, kidney, heart. So many vital places, what one should I choose?"

I felt Kakashi's chakra increase slightly, though I continued to find the direction of Zabuza's, with not much luck. It was then I noticed Sasuke shaking, causing me to bite my lip. "Sasuke," Kakashi said, looking over his shoulder at him. "Calm down. Even if he gets me, I'll protect you. I wont let my nakama die," he finished with a smile.

"I wouldn't bet on that," Zabuza chuckled, before he appeared behind us, and in front of Tazuna. I growled slightly, causing him to chuckle again, though it was cut short as Kakashi pushed everyone away from him and stabbed him with a kunai. Only, instead of blood coming from the wound, it was water. _Damned stupid mizu bunshins_.

"SENSEI! Behind you!" Naruto yelled, as _another_ Zabuza charged at Kakashi from behind. I was pretty sure it wasn't the real one, so I just watched. 

'Zabuza' then slashed through Kakashi, showing that he was also just a mizu bunshin- but still, for Kakashi to be able to copy his jutsu in the thick mist was pretty amazing. The real Kakashi then appeared behind Zabuza, with a kunai to his neck. "Game over."

Zabuza, however, didn't seem to concerned that he had been caught, which confirmed my suspicions that it was just another bunshin. "AWESOME!" Naruto yelled, grinning, though I just kept frowning, still not dropping my guard like the others.

"Heh," Zabuza chuckled. "You think it's over, you just don't get it. It'll take more than your imitations to defeat me," he carried on. "But you are good!" He complimented. "In that short time, you duplicated my mizu bunshin jutsu, then by making your bunshin say something you'd say, you focused my attention on it, while you hid in the kirigakure jutsu, watching my every move."

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" I yelled, growling slightly, watching as the real Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and put his own kunai to his throat. "It was a damned bunshin!"

The fight went on for a few more moments, including various blows and dodges, at least until Zabuza kicked Kakashi all the way to the small lake at the end of the path. My eyes widened slightly as Kakashi slopped around in the water. "Why is it so damned heavy?"

"Baka," Zabuza chuckled, standing behind Kakashi, doing some hand seals. I frowned, watching them carefully, then watched as Kakashi became trapped in a water prison. "That prison is inescapable, you're trapped. You running around makes it too hard to do my job, I'll finish you later after I deal with the others," he finished, making another mizu bunshin. I frowned, dropping my backpack on the floor silently, so I didn't draw attention to myself, then I took off the baggy shirt I wore over another one, I would probably need to use my Kekkai Genkai, and for it, I needed my arms free. No one seemed to have noticed, so I readied myself, this was what I had been waiting for.

Zabuza then looked at Naruto. "Look at you, trying to be a ninja and fit in, but only those who've crossed and recrossed the borders of life and death can call themselves a true ninja." Zabuza's bunshin then disappeared, and kicked Naruto, making his hitai-ate fall off in the process. Naruto stared at him, a shocked expression on his face while Zabuza stood on Naruto's hitai-ate.

"Listen!" Kakashi yelled. "Take Tazuna-san and go! He can't come after you, he needs one arm to keep me trapped, and the bunshin can't go too far! Just run!"

Naruto was about to reply, but instead I walked past him and stood in front of the group, no emotion spread on my face as I glared at Zabuza. "Gomen, Kakashi-sensei. I'm not leaving anyone to get killed by him this time."

Kakashi frowned, ready to put up a fight against me, but Zabuza spoke first. "Akasuki-chan seems to have some guts this time," he chuckled. "If your sensei couldn't beat me, then why do you think you can? I've grown stronger than I was! No matter how much training you did, it wont matter!"

I growled slightly, keeping my focus on him. I hated people using my middle name, it was really one of the only things you could do to anger me, unless you'd wronged me in the past. I felt my lip turn up slightly into a smirk, though Zabuza seemed not to like it much. "What're you smirking about, Akasuki-chan? The fact that you've realised I'm right?!"

"Nope," I answered, grabbing his head-cleaver as it came towards me. "I'm just not as useless as I used to be."

"Satsuki-chan!" Kakashi yelled. "You can't beat him! Just go! It doesn't matter what you have to prove, or anything! Just leave me-"

"Urusai ne!" I growled, my bangs covering my eyes, as I tightened my grip on the blade of Zabuza's head cleaver as he pushed it harder against my hand. I could feel it cut through my gloves and draw some blood from the palm of my hand, but I didn't really care. "I told you, I won't let anyone get killed by him, besides... I have something up my sleeves."

Kakashi frowned slightly as I jumped back from Zabuza, holding my injured hand. To be honest, it wasn't as wounded as I would have thought it could have been. I took off my glove and threw it on the floor. It was just extra weight that I didn't need.

Zabuza growled, swinging his cleaver at me again- only going straight through water. His eyes grew wide that I had used his mizu bunshin jutsu against him. "NANI?!"

"Ne, does Ane-san have a Sharingan too?!" Naruto asked, finding it rather exciting.

I kept silent from my position up in a near-by tree, before jumping down and forcing my foot through the water bunshin's head. "Gaki," Zabuza growled, creating two more. "Maybe you've improved... Slightly," Zabuza grunted, before frowning. "How were you able to copy my jutsu? You have no Sharingan, that's not the blood line of your clan."

I frowned slightly, before sighing. "Iie, it isn't the blood line of my clan," I started, I was actually quite thankful Zabuza had asked, because it meant I could reserve more chakra for my kekkai genkai, the more Chakra, the better the force of it. "I grew up with a Sharingan user, and I wasn't exactly the stand out of my clan. Everyone over looked me, and looked straight at my brother, or my friend," I began to explain, trying not to mention Itachi- Sasuke would have just grown angry, and would have probably hated the questions later on, he already knew who I was talking about, but it was better I didn't mention names. "I hated it, no one ever looked at me and saw that my brother had mastered the Tanaka Kekkai Genkai. They never looked at me and recognised me," I paused with a slight grow. "I was able to use it ever since birth, but no one seemed to care because I almost killed numerous people with it- to them, I was just always in the way, and dangerous because I couldn't control it. I was overlooked because my friend was the pride of his clan, and because he had a Sharingan. In our... numerous training sessions, I learnt how to adapt the Sharingan. While it's a blood trait, and not always reliable, I learnt how to concentrate completely and observe my foes jutsus and memorize the hand seals, and the chakra spike of the foe. You could say my eyes are just as useful as a Sharingan."

"SUKE, ANE-SAN!" Naruto yelled, causing me to scrunch my nose up slightly.

"Hontou?" Zabuza asked, not really looking impressed. "Well, while that was heart touching, lets get back to the fight," he smirked, while I smirked back, and started laughing slightly. My bangs covered my eyes, and I could already feel my chakra increasing from my Kekkai Genkai. "Nani?"

I lifted my head so I could look at Zabuza with one eye, and I noticed him back up slightly, while I just noticed Kakashi panic slightly from his water prison. "Satsuki! You're not supposed to use your kekkai genkai!"

"What's up with Ane-san?" Naruto whispered to Chiaki. "You're her friend, right?"

"Hai.. but, I don't know what's wrong. I've never even felt her chakra feel so... blood thirsty," Chiaki answered back. Sasuke remained silent, while I raised my head fully and laughed a little louder. "Kakashi-jiji, what's wrong with her?!"

Kakashi's face screwed up slightly, not really wanting to answer, but finally did, knowing it was probably safer if he did. "The Tanaka clan's Kekkai Genaki was one of the most powerful in Konoha for years. It only appeared in certain members of the family, while their each born with the potential to use it, a lot of them never develop their ninja skills that far," he paused. "A lot of the Tanaka Shinobi were killed by the clan leaders when they never developed that far, because they knew that if they couldn't use the Kekkai Genkai, they were just plain ninjas, with less chakra. It was their way of trying to crate a clan where all the members were the ultimate weapons.

"The Tanaka clan never attended the academy, they were all taught from the main house compound, it's how they ended up on teams with their family, and all different ages. Also, the members of the clan who were in the main house were always treated better, the methods of training were less harsh on them. Satsuki-chan is one of the main house's descendants, but she never grew up like the others.

"The ways never changed, until the clan was wiped out over a few years. First of all, half of the clan turned their backs on Konoha, after an incident a few years before. After that, when Satsuki was still young, the rest of her clan- including her father were killed by the Kyuubi. Only a few of the Tanaka clan survived, one Jounin, her brother and her cousin. They ended up on their team together."

"But that doesn't explain anything!" Naruto yelled, pissed off, while I just grinned manically at Zabuza.

"October 17 years ago, ten ninjas were killed by a baby of the Tanaka clan. It seemed that the child's chakra was acting up with the dormant traces of the clans Kekkai Genkai. Being so young, the child had no idea how to control it of course, and she- Satsuki, was the first child to ever have the Kekkai Genkai, she was the youngest. The clan expected this to be a sign that she was all powerful- but that wasn't to be the case. The blood limit comes with a price if used for more than an hour, and at the age she was, probably any use of it caused it to happen. It causes the user to become blood thirsty and manic when the kekkai genkai is activated. The fourth requested that it was sealed within her so she could never use it, he knew that if she accidentally activated it before she could control it, she would most probably slaughter the clan- if not the whole of the village," Kakashi paused, frowning while I looked at him. "A lot of the clan never felt safe, while others were enraged and felt that he was trying to control the clans power. They ended up leaving and turning against the village... I just don't know when the seal broke, she shouldn't ever be able to use her Kekkai Genkai. The fourth sealed it himself."

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei," I laughed. "It broke years ago, shortly after Zabuza slaughtered my first team... Actually," I added. "I was so angry at him, and I wanted more power. The seal just broke. It was a good thing too, because that seal stopped a lot of my chakra."

Everything was silent for a while, Kakashi seemed pretty hesitant about the whole thing and to begin with, pleaded with me to deactivate it, take the others and go. And unlike my previous answers, I just told him I had a score to settle.

I was quite aware of what I was doing, while it was true that with it activated I could slaughter almost anyone I had learnt to control the blood thirst. Both of Zabuza's bunshins stared at me, smirks on their faces. "You think that a little trick can beat me?"

I didn't answer, instead I used the hand seals to activate the jutsu for my Kekkai Genaki, and smirked. "Kumo... No Chakra." I heard Chiaki fall over behind me at the force of my Chakra, as it appeared, glowing green in front of us, before forming it's self into a shape of a bear.

"That's it? That's what's so threatening?!" Zabuza roared, laughing. "It's just a stupid trick."

"Iie, that's not what's so terrifying," Kakashi whispered, watching as as the Chakra bear went straight through the two bunshins and attacked the real Zabuza. I laughed slightly as numerous deep claw and bite marks appeared over him- the result of my jutsu.

I then noticed Kakashi look at the group behind me, and before I had a chance to react to Sasuke's chakra appearing behind me, I felt my chakra control disappear, and I slumped forward to the ground, my eyes closing slowly.


	7. Innocent

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

This part is written differently, as it's a flashback of Satsuki's from when she was young. It last's two parts, and it's mainly there to explain her sudden changes in characters, and it's also there to develop future events :)  
------

The sun was high in the sky that day, and most of the village were trying to make the most of the decent weather. There was a slight breeze in the air, making the trees shimmer slightly, but there was no prospect of rain, in fact, it was a perfect day.

A small grin spread across Satsuki's face as she hid in a Sakura tree, quite far away from her clan's compound. She was lucky, her team had the day off, and she decided to make the most of it. Below her came the sound of pages turning, causing her to grin even more as she shifted her weight slightly.

Satsuki got ready to jump out, but before she could move, the male below her sighed and cut her off. "Satsuki, would you quit that." Satsuki's eyes grew slightly wide before she fell out of the tree, landing on her head beside him. The male sighed slightly, turning the page in his book not even looking at her. "Did you damage your remaining brain cells?"

"Ne," she started, her voice high pitched. "Kakashi-kun, that hurt. Don't be so mean to me."

Kakashi sighed, not looking at her still. "Do you have to annoy me?"

"Sure I do!" She grinned, rubbing her head and peeking over his shoulder at the book he was reading. "Ne, Kakashi-kun is a pervert."

"Urusai ne... Did you want something?" He hissed, closing his book and looking at her.

"Hai, hai!" She smiled. "How's Chiaki-chan? Is she settling in okay? Do I need to kick any of the kids but-"

"Satsuki!" He sighed, stopping her. "She's just fine, she's out with a friend.. I think, I don't know. I don't really care."

"Ne, Kakashi-kun no kechi," Satsuki pouted, folding her arms. "Hokage-sama entrusted her to you, but you can barely look after her."

"Will you quit calling me Kakashi-kun? It's annoying," he grunted, folding his arms. "Leave me alone."

"Iie, unless you know where Itachi-san is," she grinned, poking her tongue out at him.

"He's probably in a meeti-"

"But you're not."

"Satsuki! Go away and leave me alone, I'm trying to relax," Kakashi growled, closing his eyes.

Satsuki blinked for a moment, before sitting in front of Kakashi and staring at him. "Not until you say it"

"Just go away."

"Kakashi-kun," she whined.

Kakashi sighed, a frown forming on his face. "Go away, _Satsuki-chan_."

"HAI, KAKASHI-KUN!" She yelled, standing up and running in the opposite direction. Eventually, however she slowed down for a walk, looking around the village. "Ne, I'm so bored," she sighed, staring up at the sky as she walked. "I wonder what I could do..."

"You could watch where you're walking, Sa-chan," a voice suggested from behind her.

Satsuki turned around as fast as she could, the earlier grin yet again appearing on her lips, seeing who stood there. "You think so?"

"Sa-chan!" A smaller voice said, as Satsuki looked behind him to see his younger brother. "Nii-san was just talking about y-"

"Sasuke," Itachi warned, as Sasuke grinned. "What're you doing, Sa-chan? Aren't you supposed to be with your team today?"

"Ohh?" Satsuki grinned, walking up to the two brothers. "You want me to be on a mission?!" She asked, pouting. "Itachi-san, that's mean. I haven't had a day off in ages! We never get to see each other any more."

"She's right, Nii-san," Sasuke said, while Itachi sighed.

"Yare yare," Itachi mumbled. "Where did you get the cut on your cheek, Sa-chan?"

Satsuki blinked for a moment, before bringing her hand up to her cheek. She felt a sticky liquid, and looked at her fingers seeing blood, though she just laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "I must have cut myself when Kakashi-kun made me fall out the tree."

"Why were you in the tree anyway?" Itachi sighed, bending down so he could give Sasuke a piggy-back, since he was complaining his legs were hurting.

"Ne, I wanted to make Kakashi-kun jump," she answered, her voice becoming lower as she spoke. "But he caught me, again. Ne, it's not fair, Itachi-san!"

Itachi blinked, and started walking, Satsuki beside him. "He was ANBU, Sa-chan, it's not surprising," he sighed, though knowing she wasn't really talking about that. Itachi frowned slightly seeing the disenchanted look on Satsuki's face as they carried on walking, he knew how hard she always tried, but people always seemed to say she got in the way, he knew first hand she wasn't really a pest; she was just excitable at certain times.

He also knew first hand how strong she really could be when she tried, she just got nervous, or she lost her concentration when someone said 'she was in the way', or, 'she wasn't strong enough'.

"Sa-chan?" Sasuke asked, causing Satsuki to look up. "What's wrong with your leg?"

Satsuki's eyes grew slightly wide, before she looked away. Itachi, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes looking down at her leg to see that indeed, she wasn't really putting much weight on it. "Satsuki," Itachi warned, stopping at the front of the Uchiha compound, and putting Sasuke down. "What happened?"

"Eh.. It's nothing, honestly, Itachi-san..." She trailed off, not looking him in the eyes.

"Uso," he sighed, sliding open the door to his house. Satsuki had seen it many times, but still, she was always amazed by the sheer size of it. She always liked it, it was a lot bigger than her house, saying that, her family had been forced out of the main compound after her father was killed. She was really the only main branch member left, and because she wasn't 16 she wasn't able to 'own' it yet.

"Kaa-san!" Sasuke smiled, as they entered. "Sa-chan's here too!"

Satsuki smiled slightly at Mikoto, though Itachi just ignored everyone and pulled her out of the entrance hall, and down the hall to his room. Usually if she was hurt after one of her team's 'training sessions', and Itachi was in Konoha he'd pull her off and make sure she was okay. Often if Satsuki couldn't walk, or Itachi decided he'd rather she didn't return home and get over worked he'd decide that she would stay there. Satsuki loved staying there too, she always felt so happy there.

"Sa-chan, what really happened?"

Satsuki frowned, sitting down and pulling up the leg of her trousers to reveal a few large bruises and a deep cut going down a lot of her leg. "I was too slow, that's all," she answered, frowning at her leg. "Nii-san and I were put together to spar by sensei," she began, frowning slightly. "I put up a pretty good fight.. I guess, but he used his Kekkai Genaki..." she whispered, trailing off. "I got hit by it, but I'm okay for the most part, I'm pretty much able to defend against it."

"Your leg begs to differ," Itachi muttered, a sigh flowing through his voice. "Do you have a mission tomorrow?"

"Hai, it's an escort mission, we were told about it yesterday, but the client has some business, so we leave tomorrow," she sighed, not moving at all as her leg was wrapped up in a bandage. "To... er, Sunagakure, I believe, I wasn't really listening... being Genin still sucks."

"Maybe if you listened more, you'd be Chuunin already," Itachi smirked, causing her to frown at him. "I take it you're staying here tonight then?"

"Hai! If that is, I'm allowed to..." she trailed off, remembering her manners, not that it was very common for her to do so. "Seeing as when I get back you'll most probably be out on another mission..." she whispered, trailing off again, while biting her lip. She hated when they didn't get to see each other. Really he was the only friend she had, she couldn't really class Sasuke as a friend, after all he was only eight. He was more like a younger brother to her. "It's not fair, Itachi-chan... Maybe I should quit being a ninja..."

Itachi sighed, she often said that at least once a week, but he knew she'd never give it up. Even if she hated it some times, she loved it most of the time; and besides, if you weren't ninja in her clan, you were killed. It was the way of the Tanaka clan, and though no one really ever agreed with it, they never changed their ways. Even now, when there were only four blood connected members of the clan remaining. "Ne, did I tell you? Kaa-san is pregnant..." Satsuki piped up, changing the conversation. "She's going to be out of the village for a week or so from tomorrow, she most probably wont be here when we all get back."

Itachi frowned again, watching as she laid back and closed her eyes. Satsuki always came off as laid back and calm, but he knew she was rather un-confident, and rather unsure, and he often wondered to himself why she had confided in him numerous times. But then again, he was pretty much her only friend, although she did like to annoy Kakashi as much as possible. _She just wanted to get to know him_. Really, he intrigued her, and she wanted to know what was behind the mask.

It rained that night. It rained pretty heavily. In fact, it stormed all night. Satsuki, however, was sprawled out fast asleep on Itachi's floor, snoring while Itachi stared at his ceiling. He didn't really feel like sleeping, he had too much on his mind; and besides, Satsuki kept mumbling in her sleep whenever she rolled over. "How can she sleep like that?" He mumbled, glancing at her, as she hugged her pillow, a smile on her face. **She had always been so innocent**.


	8. Leaving Me Alone

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

Second part of the flashback :), it ends err... There. Haha.  
------

The rain hadn't stopped for two days straight, and the remaining ninja in Konoha were often making sure everything was secure and wouldn't flood. The rain however, did seem to be letting up by midnight of the second night, just as a figure entered through the Konoha gates.

Itachi was still up that late at night, and didn't really feel like going home right then. He ended up walking around Konoha- Satsuki had gone on her mission two days ago, but there was no word from the team about anything. Itachi's eyes narrowed as he saw a figure enter through the gates, stumbling slightly and coughing. He could smell blood, in fact it was pretty distinct.

Satsuki winced with every step she took, and tried hard to keep her tears inside. After what had happened though, she did deserve to cry at least a bit, however, she remained strong... She could break down once she was safe in Konoha.

Her eyes gaze up at a figure, though she couldn't really see who it was, her vision was blurring more with the second. She had little energy left, and she knew that unless she got home she would collapse in the street.

"Sa-chan?!"

Satsuki let a small smile set on her face, as she let her body fall down to the floor, only to be caught by a pair of arms. "Itachi-san...?" She asked, squinting trying to see him.

Satsuki had never been so beat up before, sure, she'd had her injuries when her brother user his Kekkai Genkai on her, but never this bad. He was sure she'd survive, but still... Why was she in such a bad condition? And where were the rest of her team?

Itachi picked her up gently, staring at the gates making sure she hadn't come ahead of her team- but there seemed no one coming, and they were both getting soaked from the rain. The hospital was further away then the Uchiha compound, and eventually decided to take her back then get a doctor.

Satsuki stirred, groaning slightly as her body protested against any movement. She was warm and comfortable, but still she didn't know where she was. Her eyes opened slightly, before she squinted to block out the light, eventually she got used to it and moved her head slightly. _She knew exactly where she was_. She laid there for a while, wondering if it was good to move or not. "Sa-chan?"

Satsuki looked up at the voice as Sasuke walked in, a large smile on his face. "Sa-chan! Nii-san!" He yelled, before walking over to her. "Daijoubu?"

Satsuki couldn't help but smile slightly at him. "H.. Hai, Sas-chan."

"Sasuke," Itachi said, entering. Sasuke frowned, before running out of the room. "What happened?"

Satsuki frowned, sitting up and wincing in the process. "How did I get here?"

Itachi frowned, before sitting down and staring at her. "You collapsed just inside of Konoha, so I brought you back here- the doctors say you should rest, and that you shouldn't move. I've already been to see Hokage-sama, he still wants to talk to you..."

Satsuki frowned again, this time more of a sad frown. "The mission... it..." she trailed off, looking down. "It wasn't real! The client, he... he was working with them. By the time we realised Sensei wasn't the real one, the real one was killed..." She bit her lip to stop the tears running down her face. "The imposter.. he... he killed the others... Without even trying!" She cried, throwing herself at him and burying her face in his chest, no matter how much her body hated it. "I.. I don't know why I survived... I just ran before he could kill me... I.. I couldn't even help them..."

"Who did it?" Itachi asked, his voice quiet. Satsuki had never acted like this, she'd never even cried before, and he could tell she was close to doing just that.

Satsuki's grip tightened on Itachi's shirt. "Momochi... Zabuza..."

She then became aware of how much her body hurt, and how sleepy she was. She closed her eyes, and let go of Itachi's shirt, before falling asleep.

She woke up again, later that day feeling a lot better. She could even walk, even though it hurt, and even though Itachi told her not to move. He'd already seen the Hokage and told him everything, she had no reason to go anywhere. Satsuki just felt better being able to walk around, though she barely said anything to anyone. She didn't even leave the compound. And as if the deaths of her team-mates weren't enough, she woke up the second time only to hear that Uchiha Shisui had been killed the night she returned, and that his death was being treated as suspicious, mainly because they'd found a note from him.

"Itachi-san?" She asked, looking down at the floor as she sat beside him. "Am I really that useless?"

"Iie," he replied, not looking at her. She'd noticed ever since she returned, he hadn't been able to look her in the eyes. He knew that if she did, she'd figure out everything, she was always able to read people like books, her eyes were very observant. "You're not useless, you're a decent kunoichi, sometimes you just don't listen, that's all..."

"But I don't get it!" She cried, looking at him, though he didn't look at her. "I became a Genin with you, but you became a Chuunin! And... when no one's around I can match you when sparing... I don't get it, you're ANBU now, and I'm still a Genin..."

"You'll get chances," Itachi sighed, standing up. "You're positive you want to go home today?"

Satsuki frowned, as she looked up; catching his eyes in the process, though he looked away as soon as he noticed. "I guess... I can't put off Kaa-san blaming me for my brother being killed..." She mumbled, her voice slightly strained as she stood up, and walked over to Itachi. She blushed slightly, before standing on her tip toes, and kissing him on the cheek. "Arigatou... Itachi-kun," she smiled, before walking out of the room. She gave a quick bye to the rest of the family, before leaving. She didn't see Itachi after that, but she hadn't liked the look in his eyes.

As soon as she'd gotten home, she was bombarded with questions from her mother, and eventually Satsuki just ignored her and changed into a different set of clothes. She knew she was supposed to go see the Hokage, but she just couldn't. Not now, she had to go and do something; if she wasn't too late.

The rain picked up again that night, and hardly anyone was outside, that and the fact it was pretty late. Satsuki, even though her legs protested, brought her pace up to a run. She couldn't lose her best friend, she knew what he was planning- she saw it in his eyes. She'd always been able to read people that way, especially him. Itachi could never hide anything from her, and this was no exception.

"I.. Itachi-san..." She whispered, staring at his back. He was covered in blood, confirming her suspicions. "I don't want you to go..."

"I have to," He mumbled, turning to look at her. "Gomen.. Sa-chan... You should leave.. I don't want you getting into trouble..."

"IIE!" She yelled, wiping her eyes. "I'm losing everything, aren't I?"

Itachi frowned, before turning back and carrying on walking. "I'll be back one day," he sighed, before jumping onto the top of a building. Satsuki knew she most probably wouldn't see him for a while, and turned around.

She didn't really feel like going home, and she had no idea if any of the Uchiha's were alive- so, she ended up running in the complete opposite direction- though she hit something hard, due to not looking where she was going. "Satsuki," the voice hissed. "Would you wa-.. Why're you crying?"

Satsuki didn't really care that Kakashi wouldn't really be too thrilled, instead she just wrapped her arms around him, burying her face into his chest- like she had done a few days ago. To her surprise though, he didn't push her away. "What's this about?"

"Itachi.. he.. he," she whimpered, rubbing her eyes. "He's gone... everyone's gone..."

Kakashi of course wasn't a fool, and knew, mainly from the fact that ANBU were everywhere what had happened. "Are you okay? I mean.. you just got back from a mission- I heard what happened? Maybe you should go home.."

"Iie.. I can't.." she whispered, looking down. "Kaa-san's angry at me, she thinks it was all my fault..."

Kakashi then suggested the last thing she imagined he would ever say to her. "You'd have to sleep on the floor in Chiaki's room, but you can stay with me tonight if you want... You're not really in any state to be left alone."

Satsuki gave him the biggest smile she could muster- which, wasn't actually very big. "Arigatou... Kakashi-kun."

Chiaki was already fast asleep when they returned, and Satsuki fell straight asleep. Though when she woke up, she felt even worse than before.

After that, she returned home and started to clean up the house. The hokage had suggested that she didn't join another team for a few years, as it was, she was already too scared to leave the village.

Neither her, nor Sasuke spoke, or looked at each other after that. And she barely ever saw Kakashi, who she built up a minor friendship with, she was too busy looking after her mother- a year later, and a few months after her little sister was born, her mother became ill. Satsuki ended up so busy with her family, most of her life had been forgotten, though she trained harder than ever, hoping one day she'd run into Itachi, or Zabuza again. Although, after that night she broke a promise she had made when she was four, to a man she used to care for very much.


	9. Kaiza and Inari

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

Back to normal time! Haha  
------

My whole body hurt, but that was usually what happened when my Kekkei Genkai was used. Though my head hurt a lot more, but that was to be expected. I opened my eyes slightly, a small moan escaping my lips, while I stared at the ceiling. Where ever I was, it was dark and silent, apart from a sigh in the corner of the room. 

"Kakashi-kun...?" I whispered, making sure I was pretty much safe.

"Oh? Your awake?" He asked, walking over, while I sat up and rubbed my head.

"What happened?" I asked, before pulling my hand back from my head. "ITAI!"

Kakashi just chuckled slightly. "Maybe Sasuke over did it."

"You think?!" I asked, folding my arms. I guessed we were at Tazuna's, we definitely weren't in any kind of trouble. It was then I noticed something weird with my chakra, and my eyes dropped to my hands, which were on my lap. Kakashi didn't say anything, at least not until I asked him. "Did.. you seal it up again?"

"Hai," he replied, frowning. "It's safer."

"I know..." I sighed, before stretching. "Where are the others?"

"In another room..." he trailed off. "I'm surprised they're not fighting... It's no secret that Naruto and Sasuke don't exactly get along."

"They'll come around," I laughed, before stopping, thinking about my dream I'd had.

"Daijoubu, Satsuki-chan?"

"Uh... Hai, hai. Besides," I paused and smiled slightly. "I did make a promise to keep my chin up..." I replied, looking up at him and smiling. "Ne, Kakashi-kun, you never used to like calling me Satsuki-chan..."

"Well you were slightly annoying," he chuckled. "Kakashi-kun, ka? Haven't heard anyone call me that in years..." He trailed off. "Anyway, you should probably sleep, I should too really. The other's started training yesterday... But I'll fill you in, in the morning."

"Okay..." I whispered, lying down and yawning. If the others were training, it obviously meant Zabuza was okay. "Oyasumi nasai... Kakashi-kun."

"Oyasumi nasai."

I woke up feeling a lot better the following morning, and I could hear Naruto's voice from downstairs. Sighing, I realised I was the last one up, so I quickly changed into my clothes, and walked down the stairs. The room seemed to go quiet as I entered, and everyone looked up at me. It kind of made me nervous, actually.

I smiled slightly to myself, before sitting down beside Sasuke and Kakashi, and looked at Sasuke. "Ne, Sas-chan, it's not polite to stare."

Naruto and Chiaki looked at each other as I called him 'Sas-chan', then looked at Sasuke to see if he would yell, or what. "Hn. Since when do you care about being polite... Sa-chan?"

Chiaki jumped up from her seat and pointed straight at Sasuke. "HE'S SICK. HE IS." Naruto seemed to find this hilarious, and burst out in fits. "He never -chan's anyone! He must like you, Sat-chan!"

I scrunched my nose up, while Sasuke glared at Chiaki. "Ne, baka! Sas-chan is too young for me anyway!"

Kakashi sighed, though I did notice a small smile on his face. "Satsuki-chan, Zabuza may still be alive," he started, causing me to nod, while eating what- who I assumed to be Tazuna's daughter, put in front of me. "He was 'killed' by an ANBU from the mist- but instead of just disposing of him there, he took him away-"

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei," I started, looking at him. "I gathered that when you told me the others were training... Besides," I frowned. "I can feel that he's still alive."

Kakashi nodded, before sighing. "The other's are learning how to climb tree's with their chakra. Well, truthfully speaking, Sasuke and Naruto are- Chiaki already got quite high. She's guarding Tazuna-san today," he paused. "I think it's ideal if you go with them."

"Hai," I answered, frowning, after all my Kekkei Genkai had been sealed, I would have to get used to not having as much chakra, but even so, it shouldn't have been so hard for me to do.

After breakfast, I followed Naruto and Sasuke into the forest, though Naruto kept grinning and laughing to himself when he looked at Sasuke and I. "Naruto, will you pack it in?" I sighed, as we stopped in a clearing in the forest, there were two trees with kunai marks, so I guessed the one in the middle was the one Chiaki had used.

"HAI! Sa-chaaaan," Naruto grinned, though stopped as I glared at him. I'd already noticed Sasuke had started to climb up the tree that had the highest. "Ane...san?"

"Don't call me Sa-chan, Naruto-kun," I sighed. "Only two people are allowed to call me that." Naruto nodded, though he looked fairly confused, but just dropped it before he walked to the other tree.

I noticed straight away that Sasuke was already better at climbing the tree, though Naruto was catching up pretty fast. I smirked slightly, before channelling my chakra into my feet, and taking a run at the tree. I had climbed tree's before, and I'd succeeded, but it had been years since I'd done it.

I managed to get about half way before my foot came off, I frowned before putting the chakra into my hands, and doing a back flip to keep myself on the tree, and carried on running. I didn't plan on stopping until I got to the top. If Zabuza was still out there. I'd have another chance to fight him, I was determined to do everything I could to prepare myself for it.

By dinner time, I had gotten at least three quarters of the way. I kept having to redo certain pats, because I slipped. Sasuke and Naruto were both pretty much beaten up when we went back to Tazuna's, and I had a few scratches on my body but other than that, I was fine.

I still felt bad though, I used to be able to run to tops of trees fast, but I had gotten three quarters of the way in a day. "Satsuki-chan, keep your chin up," Kakashi said, as I looked at him and nodded.

During dinner Naruto and Sasuke kept eating as much as possible, trying to beat each other, but ended up being ill, causing me to laugh slightly. They reminded me a lot of how my brother and I used to compete. "Sat-chan! Don't encourage them!" Chiaki winged.

"I'm sorry," I laughed. "It's just my brother and I used to be exactly the same as them!"

Chiaki just rolled her eyes, before walking over to a picture on the wall, where someone's face had been torn out. "Why is this torn?" She asked, holding her arms behind her back. "Inari-kun was looking at it all through dinner," she paused. Inari was Tazuna's grandson, and his daughter was named Tsunami. "Someone's face is completely gone, is that deliberate?"

I stared down at my food as she asked this. She had asked a similar question when she first entered my house, there was a picture of me, my mother, my father and my bother. My father and brother had been taken out though, mainly because I found it too hard to look at.

"It was a picture of Inari's father," Tsunami whispered.

Tazuna looked down slightly, before sighing. "He was like a hero to our city..."

Inari frowned, before standing up and leaving the room- slamming the door in the process. "INARI!" Tsunami yelled, concern running through her voice. "TOUSAN! I told you time and time again, not to mention that in front of Inari!" She yelled at Tazuna, though she looked pretty upset. No doubt it was a touchy subject.

Tazuna sighed again. "The man in the picture was not Inari's birth father, but they were just as close. He was always such a happy child... until... the incident."

I noticed Kakashi glance at me from the corner of his eye as Tazuna started to explain everything, he obviously guessed it could be touchy like me, seeing as I was never close to my father, and when he died I didn't cry at all. However, there was a man I was close too, he was a kind of father figure to me, and coincidentally, he was my father's best friend. I cried a lot more when I found out he had died. I barely stopped. I was just four then.

"Our people, and Inari were robbed of courage because... of that incident," Tazuna said, a serious look plastered on his face. He began to explain about a man named Kaiza, the man who used to be in the picture, and how he did a lot for the country, because he loved it so much. He saved it from getting flooded, though... Gatou didn't like how much courage he gave to the people. He had him killed in front of the whole town.

I felt my eyes sting slightly. No wonder Inari didn't really speak much, nor ever did he really look happy. I sighed, before looking down and standing up. I didn't really feel like eating, and I just headed up to the room I was sleeping in, ignoring everyone's questions. Though Kakashi just told them I'd be okay, I was most likely just tired.

I changed into my PJ's which had bears on them, before I rubbed my arm slightly. The key to my clans Kekkei Genkai was our birthmarks. Each of us had an identical one somewhere on our body, but they turned dark if we were able to use out Kekkei Genkai, they were in the shape if a bear paw. And I was the last person left with one- seeing as my mother wasn't born into the clan, and she married into it, my sister didn't have it either.

At least half an hour later, Kakashi entered sighing slightly. He had gotten injured from his fight with Zabuza, but he kept insisting he was okay- even if Tsunami insisted he rest. "Satsuki-chan? Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." I trailed off. "It made me think of the fourth... I'm okay though." Kakashi smiled slightly, before I stretched and yawned. "I did promise him I'd keep happy no matter what."

"I still don't believe you remember that," he muttered, shaking his head. "You were like four."

"Ne, Kakashi-kun," I laughed, before closing my eyes. "Oyasumi nasai."

I sighed slightly, trying to sleep. The fourth was like a second father to me, and I had made a promise to him a few days before he died. I always got a ton of courage from him, I always grew a lot stronger. It was then I realised my key to defeating Zabuza was the fourth, I was going to train as hard as possible from the day after.


	10. Fight On The Bridge

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

------

After a few more days of training, I was able to reach the top of the tree, but it had exhausted most of my chakra, so Kakashi had insisted that I rest for the rest of the time we had until Zabuza returned. I hadn't actually talked to anyone, but I think they could tell I was getting pumped for when it would happen.

Currently, Chiaki and I were sat on Kakashi's back while he did push ups- with a finger. I was worried he was pushing himself too soon, but he seemed fine. Tazuna was standing by the window, looking rather worried by everything.

"I keep meaning to ask you," he spoke up, looking at Kakashi. "You know I lied about how dangerous this mission was to get you to come here... So why do you stay?"

"'To know what is right and choose to ignore it, is the act of a coward'," Kakashi paused, while I looked at him. Chiaki just blinked from beside me. "'Like master like man', those are the teachings of some of our previous Hokage. This is the Shinobi way of life, true Shinobi do not merely dance to the tune of whoever plays the piper," he finished, looking at his hand.

"Kakashi-kun, daijoubu ka?" I asked, concerned.

"Hai, Satsuki-chan. I'm just fine, I think I'm almost healed."

Later that day, Sasuke and Naruto entered the little house again- both looking extremely worn out and cut up. "We both.. made it to the top," Naruto grinned, while I laughed slightly. It had taken them long enough.

"Good!" Kakashi said, looking at them. "From tomorrow you will protect Tazuna-san as well."

"Whew, I'm exhausted," Tazuna sighed, smiling. "But construction of the bridge is almost complete!"

Tsunami frowned, as she looked at him and sighed. "Tousan, please don't over do it!"

Tazuna nodded, while I looked between Inari and Naruto. Naruto was exhausted, and had his head rested on his arms, while Inari stared at him- a distant look in his eyes. I frowned slightly, as tears started to roll down his cheeks- though Naruto noticed too. "What's wrong?"

Naruto frowned, staring straight at Naruto. "Why do you wear yourself out trying so hard?!" He yelled. "No matter how hard you try, you'll never be a match for Gatou's thugs! You act so cool, and you talk so tough... But big strong guys like that are always too much for people weaker than they are! They'll destroy you!"

I scrunched my nose up, and rested my chin on my hand, wondering what Naruto would say. "Shut up!" He hissed, glaring. "I'm not you, and I'm not gonna lose!"

"Just watching you ticks me off!!" Inari yelled, while I looked away. "You go running your mouth off, when you don't know a thing! This isn't your town! And you don't know a thing about me! You're always clowning around having fun. You don't know a thing about suffering or loneliness or what my life is like!!"

I looked up quickly and frowned. Inari was wrong, Naruto knew a lot about that. Inari's words ticked me off, but Kakashi just shook his head at me to stay out of it. "So... you figure it's noble to star in a melodrama and treat everyone around you as guests at your pity party?!" Naruto asked, a growl going through his words. "It really takes a big man to sit round and cry you brat! You big baby!"

Inari sat there shocked at Naruto's words, while Chiaki just scolded Naruto as he exited the room. "YOU WENT TOO FAR!"

I frowned, and looked away from the others. I was close to snapping myself, so I excused myself and headed up to my room. I sighed slightly, changing into my jammies and lying down on my futon. All of a sudden I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, I couldn't really explain it, but for some reason... I knew the following day would be the day we'd see Zabuza again...

"Please take care of Naruto for us," Kakashi asked Tsunami, as we stood outside. I had changed my usual outfit for a brown shirt with the clan's symbol on it, and black shorts, with a brown skirt over the front. They were my clans colours, Black, Green and Brown. My shirt was pretty short, since most of my clan had been trained for long distance fighting. I just covered my bare flesh with some bandages, and put on my fingerless gloves, tabi and leg warmers. My weapons were strapped to my legs, and I had a few medical supplies in a back pouch attached to my skirt. My hitai-ate sat around my forehead, and my silvery blue hair was tied back with my blue bow. I hadn't spoken all morning, and with every second, the sickening feeling in my stomach got worse.

"We're off, Tsunami!" Tazuna said, as he led the way to the bridge with us bringing up the rear. Naruto had been so exhausted the previous day he had slept in, Kakashi thought it was best to leave him to rest- I didn't confide in him how I felt, though I was sure he was suspicious about how I was acting.

Eventually, we got to the bridge- though we all stopped and stared wide-eyed at the slaughtered bodies everywhere. So I had been right. "Wh-what happened?!" Tazuna asked, while I frowned as the mist surrounded us again.

Straight away we surrounded Tazuna as if on instinct. "Kakashi-sensei... Let me fight him," I whispered beside him, while frowning ahead of me. I could hear him sigh from beside me, before he nodded slightly. He knew that I most probably wouldn't listen to him if he said no anyway.

"Been a while, Kakashi," Zabuza's voice echoed. "And I see you brought those brats, including Akasuki-chan," he chuckled. "And the boy, he's trembling like before! Pathetic." It was true, Sasuke's hand in which he held his kunai was shaking slightly.

Just as Zabuza's voice seemed to disappear, a bunch of mizu bunshin's surrounded us from nowhere. Obviously he was going to try and take us out with them- but we weren't push overs, not like we were before. Sasuke smirked, his shaking stopping slightly. "I'm shaking because I'm excited."

"Go ahead, Sasuke!" Kakashi said, smiling. Straight away, Sasuke took off and defeated each of the clones, before returning to his spot. I smiled slightly, though my eye's went slightly wide and I looked down as my stomach churned. I wasn't scared, Zabuza hadn't scared me since I decided I wanted revenge... and I wasn't nervous. I didn't know what it was.

"Well my mizu bunshins were obviously no match for you!" Zabuza chuckled, appearing in front of us, with his ANBU friend. "It seems the brats have matured quite a bit... Into worthy rivals... Eh, Haku?"

His friend, now named 'Haku', nodded. "Indeed."

"Looks like I was right," Kakashi concluded. "Our mysterious masked friend is playing on Zabuza's team."

"This one's mine," Sasuke frowned, staring at Haku. I was doing my best to mind my anger at Zabuza, though I don't think it was working too well. Instead, I just focused on my plan to beat him, my stomach even stopped churning after I'd calmed down.

"Impressive kid, isn't he?" Haku asked. There was something strange about the kid, I couldn't really explain what- but he made me rather curious. "Even if the bunshins only have about a tenth of your strength... He still did well."

"But we're still on the offensive," Zabuza replied, not looking at Haku. "Go!"

Haku was extremely fast, and before I'd realised he'd moved he and Sasuke were already fighting. I didn't really concentrate on what they were saying to each other, but it seemed they were pretty much an equal match. Every time Haku went to attack, Sasuke was right there to block it, and vice versa. Haku then used a jutsu, with one hand, which made all the water around them turn into needles. Luckily, due to the Chakra training we'd done the previous week, Sasuke was able to jump out of the way. Haku, and Zabuza seemed rather confused that he was losing, though when Haku used a weird jutsu, I felt some strange chakra come from it.

Haku's 'demonic ice mirrors' was pretty strange, even Kakashi seemed shocked by it and rushed forward to help Sasuke- however, Zabuza stopped him before he could go any further. "Don't forget I'm your opponent!"

I frowned slightly, before stepping forward. "I think you'll find, I'm your opponent," I said with a smirk, as Zabuza looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"You? You barely laid a finger on me last time!" He laughed, though frowned and jumped backwards as I went to hit him. "So you're a little more gutsy, whatever, you'll still lose."

I went to have another go at hitting Zabuza, but Sasuke sounded in pain and it stopped me. "If your worried about him, this'll be easy!" Zabuza went to make a move, but Naruto appeared causing a scene, stopping him.

"Idiot," I growled, off taking my eyes off Zabuza. Kakashi sighed from behind me, as Zabuza threw some Shuriken at Naruto- Haku however blocked them with his senbon. "Huh?"

"Please, Zabuza-san, let me have this boy," Haku said, from in between his mirrors.

Zabuza sighed, before agreeing, letting the pair of us carry on our fight. To begin with, we seemed rather equal, and I had managed to block out the other fight so I could fully concentrate on Zabuza- though the truth was, I was keeping an eye on both Sasuke's and Naruto's chakra levels; I couldn't help but worry about them.

I was cut up pretty badly on my hands from Zabuza's head cleaver, since I kept catching it in my hands; not the smartest of moves granted, but still... Zabuza was worse. I had managed to get him with a few basic jutsus, though it was mainly taijutsu mixed with his own mizu bunshins.

I smirked slightly, rubbing some blood from my lip while I frowned at him. I however broke my stance as I felt Sasuke's chakra almost disappear, I looked over to where the fight had been going on, but I could only hear Naruto yelling, though what I couldn't tell.

My body then froze, and everything seemed to become quiet. My whole body went cold and numb, and I gasped in pain as I coughed up blood. I turned my head forward to see Zabuza staring straight at me, looking pretty shocked that he'd actually managed to beat me. His head cleaver was pretty much embedded into my gut. The real pain however, clicked in when a bit of my blood dropped to the floor and he pulled his head cleaver back.

I clutched my gut and fell to my knees, coughing blood everywhere. I tried my hardest to stop the bleeding on my wound, but by the blurriness from my eyes I knew I had already lost too much blood, and I fell forward. I could see Zabuza's feet right in front of my face, before he hooked his foot in my gut, and kicked me backwards to where Kakashi and Chiaki were. Through the mist they hadn't seen our fight, but my eyes shut before I could see their reactions.

_Was I going to die...?_


	11. Never Coming Back

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

------

We had been back in Konoha for at least a week, but yet I was still stuck in the hospital, but only Kakashi and Sasuke had been to visit me- even when I expected Naruto, Chiaki and my sister to come. Kakashi and Sasuke had been the last people I ever imagined to visit me, but they had.

I was pretty lucky I was alive, it turns out the medical supplies I had in my pouch had been enough to stop the bleeding, and numb the pain. Kakashi had carried me back to Konoha, mainly due to the fact I couldn't really walk due to the amount of pain I was in. I hadn't told anyone how it really happened, I just said Zabuza caught me off guard- which he had, but I never said the reason I was off guard. I guess they found it weird, and wanted to ask... They didn't though.

I sat staring at the wall opposite for a while, there wasn't really much I could do- none of the doctors would let me out of my room. I think they were worried I'd cause 'more strain on my wound', I barely even noticed it any more, well that may have been a slight lie, but still... I had stuff to be doing.

The day after, however, they did let me out, on the reasoning that I kept off my feet as much as possible. Who were they kidding? I'd get back with my team straight away, they weren't going to keep me locked up any more. I would just have to be careful, that was all.

It did really feel good to be outside, though no one really noticed me walking around. Yet again I had changed my outfit, into a pair of three quarter length black trousers, and a sleeveless green shirt. I had on my black fingerless gloves, and my zori. My shirt had the clan symbol tiny at the bottom, and it had a few buttons going up the front.

I soon came across my team, and it looked as if they'd just gotten back from a mission seeing as Naruto was being supported by Chiaki. I smiled slightly, walking as fast as I could to catch up with them. "Ne, Kakashi-kun!" I greeted, causing everyone to stop and look at me.

"Ane-san!" Naruto grinned. "Are you okay now?!"

Kakashi sighed slightly. "Did you leave the hospital without permission?"

"IIE!" I yelled, frowning. "They said as long as I keep off my feet for a while I'll be fine."

"So that means you wont be on missions with us, Ane-san?" Naruto asked, blinking.

I didn't answer straight away, instead I shifted around. "Of course I'll be on missions with you!" I answered, grinning. "You think I'm going to take what they say seriously? I'm fine, honestly I am, I can barely feel the pain- though I'm sure if I got hit in my gut it'd hurt a lot."

"I don't think that's wise... Satsuki-chan," Kakashi sighed, while I shrugged my shoulders. "I could just refuse to take you on the missions..."

"But you know I'd be training," I countered, grinning even more. "And then I'd be unsupervised, so if something happened I could die!"

"You make it sound so dramatic," Sasuke mumbled, as I grinned at him.

The day was pretty uneventful, apart from the fact we encountered three Suna Shinobi, who said they were here to participate in the Chuunin exams; of course, that got me excited enough, but the fact that the red headed Genin of them seemed super strong just excited me further.

I was lucky that night really, Iruka told me my sister would be home the following day, so I didn't have to look after her that night. It felt weird being away from my family for so long, but it also felt so much better. I don't think I realised before, but I really did despise looking after them both.

The following morning I woke up at a proper time, before getting dressed and taking a shower. I also redressed the bandages on my stomach, before changing into my new attire. Surprisingly though I was the last to arrive at the meeting place, though it looked like Kakashi had only just shown up when I did arrive. "G-gomen!" I cried, catching my breath. "I woke up late..."

"Doesn't matter," Kakashi said, shaking his head. "This may surprise you but I've entered you into the Chuunin exam," he started, holding out four forms. "Just fill out the applications. The exam is entirely voluntary, so if you don't want to take if- you don't have to. If you do report to room 301 at the Academy by four tomorrow afternoon."

Naruto yelled slightly, before throwing himself at Kakashi and hugging him, making me laugh. I hadn't participated in The chuunin exams before, I had the chance to, but there was one Genin too many that year... I don't know why, I guessed it was for everyone else, mainly Itachi, but I gave up my spot so everyone else could take it. Of course, Itachi became a Chuunin.

Naruto then yelled he would treat everyone to ramen, but I excused myself from the group of Genin's and stayed back with Kakashi. We were both silent for a while, before he spoke up. "You want to know why I entered everyone, right?" He asked. I just nodded in reply. "Well I know you would have gotten angry if you didn't get the chance to enter, Iruka opposed me though. He didn't think the others were ready, and said that you'd just come out of the hospital."

"I wouldn't really care if I had no legs," I laughed. "I'd fine a way to participate." I smiled at Kakashi for a while, before blushing slightly and looking away. I don't know what had gotten into me. I mean... I knew that when I was younger I had a dumb crush on him, but I was sure I no longer had feelings for him. In fact, I was certain. "I.. I should go get my sister..." I whispered, walking off slowly. "Ja... Kakashi-kun."

My sister didn't really seem like she wanted to go home, but I did eventually get her back, though I couldn't stop thinking about Kakashi- at least, until Itachi came into my thoughts. It was strange, I'd never really been confused about feelings- especially over members of the opposite gender. I locked myself in my room for the rest of the day, I kept telling myself over and over to forget about Itachi- he wouldn't be coming back, he was a wanted criminal. Maybe I should concentrate my feelings on Kakashi... Or at least talk to him about everything.


	12. Chuunin Exams!

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

------

We all met early the next morning, like usual Chiaki had ran into my room yelling. Though she had no reason to wake me up, I hadn't really slept much, I had too much on my mind, and I decided to see if I could try and speak to Kakashi as soon as possible. I just had no idea if I'd get the chance to see him, or not.

The academy was full of people, mainly Shinobi, who were all obviously participating in the exam. There were even people older than me, and I was sure some people younger than the rest of my team. It wouldn't be surprising really. "I've never seen so many people," Chiaki muttered, as I just laughed. "What?"

"You shouldn't be surprised, I mean... It's not just shinobi from Konoha participating," I explained, folding my arms. I had tied my hair back for the exam, into a long braid, mainly to keep it out of my way, and I had exchanged my gloves for arm warmers. It felt weird really, I usually had my hands covered by them. I took to wearing gloves when I tried cooking for the first time. I'd never seen so much blood!

I was about to carry on my explanation, but a commotion up ahead caused me to narrow my eyes. There were three Genin, who looked about our age- but were most probably older. "Please, let us through!" The girl pleaded, supporting herself on her hands. I blinked slightly, wondering whether anyone had noticed the genjutsu.

"What did you say?" One of the boys who was blocking the door asked. "We're just trying to spare you! The chuunin exam is incredibly difficult, I should know, I've failed three times!" I frowned again, folding my arms. "I've seen everything! People who pass, but give up being Shinobi after, people who.. who die!"

I rolled my eyes, getting slightly annoyed. _Of course people died!_ I mean, I almost died on a basic mission a few weeks back, shinobi risk their lives every day they take on a mission! "You're just annoying," I huffed, pushing in front of anyone.

"Sat-chan! What're you doing?" Chiaki asked, looking around.

"Annoying?" The pair of boys asked. "You must have failed before..."

"Iie, actually I haven't taken it before," I sighed. "Now, remove the damned Genjutsu and let us go pass."

A few of the other Shinobi mumbled behind me, wondering what I was talking about- one of the boys however, just smirked. "You saw through it, ka?"

"Duh," I sighed, folding my arms. "Anyone who can't is just an idiot, we're only on the second floor."

"YEAH!" Naruto agreed, as Chiaki hit him over the head. "NANI?!"

"You didn't notice! Baka!" Chiaki growled.

"Not bad!" The boy laughed. I then noticed his muscles tense up, and he launched a kick at me. "But just seeing through it isn't enough!"

I got ready to return his gesture, but before our legs could connect, the boy who was getting kicked around earlier grabbed both our legs. I was pretty surprised actually, only a few people, who were Jounin-rank and above had ever stopped me mid-attack. I was impressed.

"Hey..." His male team-mate frowned. "That's not what we agreed! You're the one who insisted we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves!" I judged, merely by his eyes, that he was a Hyuuga. It didn't take much working out, but his team mates must have been Tenten and Rock Lee. I'd heard about them before, and their sensei Gai- well of course I'd heard about Gai, he was Kakashi's 'eternal rival'. Though, to be honest... Gai was a little lame.

"B-but...!" Lee said, looking at Chiaki. "I'm Rock Lee!" He grinned. "And... you're Chiaki right? Would you like to go out with me?! I'll protect you with my life," he grinned again, his teeth sparkling in the process. I couldn't help but laugh at Chiaki's predicament, though she just turned him down.

Before anything else could develop, however, I excused myself from the group. I had become aware of Kakashi's chakra in the building, so I decided myself to go and find him. It was best to talk to him now, alone, while the others were indisposed.

I found him outside the entrance to the first test room, he was leaning against the wall looking half asleep. "Ne, Kakashi-kun, didn't you get much sleep?" I asked, standing in front of him and smiling.

"I could say the same to you," he chuckled, as I covered my mouth while I yawned. "Where's the rest of the team?"

"Well right about now... I guess Lee is fighting Sasuke," I laughed. "He probably wants to show off in front of Chiaki..."

"Lee?"

"Don't ask," I sighed, shaking my head. "Ne, I expected more people to be around here..."

"Well, actually," Kakashi began. "You're one of the last to arrive."

"Hontou ni?" I asked, blinking before smiling. "People must be getting scared! I don't blame them... There's some pretty scary people around here..." I trailed off. "Anyway, Kakashi-kun... I was... well... I was thinking," I started, staring at the floor. "Well... I.. I-"

"KAKA-JIJI!" Chiaki roared, running over, Sasuke and Naruto just walked however. "Your rival scares the shit outta me!"

"Chiaki!" I scolded. "Language!"

Chiaki raised an eyebrow at me, before laughing. "And-and who made you.. My-my mother?" she asked laughing.

"Why're you laughing, baka?" I asked, sighing.

"I'm laughing be-because you act more like a guardian th-than Kakashi!" She said, still laughing.

"And that's funny how?" I asked, though just shook my head. "Forget I asked, you're just plain weird."

"Well you all qualify," Kakashi said, ignoring Chiaki's laughter, though she soon stopped and stared at him. "If Chiaki hadn't shown up like she didn't want to," he carried on, as Chiaki laughed nervously. "Then none of you would have been able to enter. I just told you it was an individual choice so there wasn't any pressure. But of you of course new that, didn't you Satsuki-chan?"

"HAI!" I grinned, laughing.

"Well someone's happy," Sasuke mumbled, as I stared at him. I guessed Lee must have beaten him I didn't know how, but Sasuke wasn't really acting the same. The other three then went straight into the room, but I still held back.

"Kakashi-kun... I... uh..." I stuttered, as he stared at me. I felt my cheeks turn slightly red, before I clenched my eyes. "I think... I'm... I think I'm getting feelings for you!" I blurted out, before I ran into the examination room.

I sighed slightly, leaning against the wall. "Watashi no baka desu," I sighed, before looking up at the amount of Shinobi in the room. It was pretty much full, and rather than feeling nervous- I just felt excited. I guess it was because I had been stuck in hospital ever since Zabuza almost killed me.

Kakashi remained in his spot outside of the room, staring at the floor. Both his eyes were wide, of course, any passing person would only be able to see one. Shaking his head, Kakashi sighed slightly, no wonder she'd been acting strangely. They deffinately needed to talk later on...


	13. Handicap

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the story lines, jutsus etc etc. I do however own all OC's apart from Chiaki who belongs to an old friend of mine. Any resembelence to real people is completely coincendential :)_

------

I noticed my team mates' eyes widen at the amount of people in the room. I just held a blank gaze, and looked over them. I noticed the three sand Shinobi, and Lee's team in the middle of the crowd- and some ninja from a village I'd never heard of before. They had musical notes on their hitai-ate, obviously something to do with sound.

"Ne, Chiaki-chan," I laughed, leaning on her head while glaring at some amenin. "You look like you wanna puke."

I notice her look up at me with her eyes, before she folded her arms and pouted. "Why do you always lean on me? Why not Sasuke-baka?"

"Sasuke's taller than you, and Naruto is shorter- you're just the right height!" I answered, grinning, though I stopped as Sakura and Ino shrieked before running over to Sasuke and jumping on him. My eye twitched slightly, while Chiaki gave out a nervous laugh.

"SASUKE-KUN!" Ino screamed, right in his ear. "I missed you-"

"Get off him, Ino-pig!" Sakura roared, pointing at her. Chiaki waved slightly, before poking her shoulder the same nervous laugh still there. "WHAT- huh?" Sakura asked, as Chiaki pointed to me. "Satsuki-sempai... Daijou-"

"**Leave Sasu-chan alone**!" I yelled, feeling rather protective. "He doesn't like it when you hang off him, or scream in his ear!"

Ino and Sakura glared daggers at me, before they started to yell back at me. "**You're too old for him**!"

"**Sasu-chan?!?!?!**" Sakura asked, yelling. "**Back off**!"

I raised an eyebrow at their reactions, before breaking out into hectic laughter. "You two are both so naive! Sasu-chan wouldn't date you if you were the last girls in the universe," I said, laughing.

"**Eh**?!" Sakura yelled, balling her fist up. "**Like your one to talk**!"

"Uh, Sa-chan?" Sasuke mumbled, poking my shoulder. Ino and Sakura's eyes widened, before their glares became even worse. "Do you like the attention, or something?" He asked, pointing to the rest of the room that was staring at us.

"SA-CHAN?! What the hell?" Sakura asked, her voice becoming quiet, before she and Ino began whispering.

"Well.. they're all pathetic!" I said, crossing my arms and turning my back on the rest of the room, at least until the rest of Ino's team came over. "Eh? Shikamaru?" I asked, scrunching my nose up. "Why aren't you sleeping?"

"Why do you think?" He asked bitterly, looking at Sakura and Ino. "The pair of them bicker, bicker, bicker- there's no way anyone can sleep around them."

"But I see Chouji doesn't have much trouble eating!" I laughed, Naruto joined in also though Chouji just frowned.

"So all the rookies got in?" Kiba asked, walking over with his team. "Oh, and the baa-ch-"

"FINISH THAT AND DIE!" I roared, getting ready to hit them over the head. I think the yelling had hurt my stomach, as it started to throb. I groaned slightly, before rubbing it gently. "You're off the hook for now."

"Y-you sh-shouldn't enter.. if.. yo-your... ill," Hinata stuttered, as I smiled at her.

"Ane-chan hurt her stomach on a mission!" Naruto said, putting his hands behind his head. "She almost died because of i-"

"NARUTO!" I growled, pulling his ear. "Why don't you tell everyone about my handicap?!"

"Baka," Chiaki sighed, while Sasuke glanced at Sakura and Ino- who were both still whispering to each other. "But.. Hinata's right, you did just get out of hospital, Sat-chan... Do you think you should enter?"

I didn't answer, but Chiaki didn't ask again, due to me glaring at her. Of course I was sure I should enter! I wasn't going to be stuck as a genin for the rest of my life! I'd already been there for years, it was getting boring- getting the stupid missions, and always being looked down on. I was just as good a ninja as half of the Chuunins, it was just dumb you had to go through a test to earn the rank.

"That's very brave, entering the exam with a handicap like that," a voice said, causing all of us to turn around and stare at a fairly tall Genin. He had silver hair, and a leaf hitai-ate around his head. I frowned slightly, for a start I didn't trust him he just radiated bad waves. And besides, his next statement sounded rather pervy. "Standing around with kawaii faces, honestly! But you should be quiet," he paused, motioning towards the same amenin I had glared at earlier. "Shinobi from Amegakure have a short fuse. Everyone's on edge before the exam, I'm just advising you before someone beats the crap out of you."

"And... you are?" I asked, folding my arms.

"The names Kabuto," he greeted, while I just snuffed him. "You should listen to me..."

"No one here can beat the crap outta me," I muttered.

"That's too cocky," Kabuto frowned.

"Hn," I frowned, turning my back on him. Naruto and Chiaki both looked between us, it wasn't really like me to greet anyone like that, but he had sneaked up on us, called us cute, started giving out advice no one really wanted and, he obviously didn't think I could pass the exam with my stomach as bad as it was.

"So..." Sakura asked, pushing her way in front of us. "This is... your second time?"

"No," Kabuto smirked. "My seventh." I scoffed at his answer. He obviously wasn't such a good shinobi if he couldn't pass a lame ass test.

"So you've got a lot of experience!" Sakura grinned.

"That doesn't mean he ever got past the first part of the test," I mumbled, though no one listened to me.

"You are the man!" Naruto cheered, while I rolled my eyes, and lent against the wall.

"Cute," Kabuto chuckled. "Okay then the least I can do is give you baby-nin some information on what you're up against with my shinobi skill cards," he smiled, holding up a deck up of cards. I raised an eyebrow, watching as he put the cards on the floor. I just frowned, before staring at the ceiling. The others were all crowded around him, so I probably looked weird standing on my own. The truth was I was just rather freaked out about what I had said to Kakashi. I couldn't really believe I'd said anything to him.

"MY NAME IS UZUMAKI NARUTO!" I heard Naruto yell, causing me to jump slightly and look at him. "AND NONE OF YOU ARE GONNA BEAT ME!"

I laughed slightly, watching as the other genin the room glared at him. It wasn't really surprising he would say anything like that, Naruto was too confident, and stubborn to be gotten down by stupid facts or whatever. My eyes scanned the crowd taking in the shinobi again, though I frowned when the three unknown shinobi disappeared from my sight.


End file.
